Monday, December 18, 2006
Changing gears…Maslow’s theory of Driving Needs and Motivation
It’s that time of the year, the end of the year, when we start thinking about the year that just went pass by, some of us think it was as good as it could have been, others look forward to a better year to follow and make necessary changes. Personifying this blog, there is a need to change gears. The branding of this blog has come under severe pressure, owing to a series of serious posts! It’s time to get back to the basics of the blog, get back to the drawing board and make necessary adjustments to the portfolio of serious and funny posts featured on this blog!
Over the last couple of days, I have dwelled about funny topics for this post. As always, I struggled for topics, it's much easier to write serious stuff, I suddenly realised! Finally, I decided to amalgamate two topics in the hope that something funny would pop up. Here is an attempt at this. Let me introduce Maslow’s theory of driving needs and motivation!
For those who need to refresh the original theory that Maslow proposed, please see this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
With all due regards to Mr. Maslow, let me now mutate the genetics of this theory that has withstood the test of time and apply it to driving needs and motivation:
Physiological needs: At the very first stage, you drive to meet the basic transportation needs. As such, you don’t care whether you drive a BMW or a bullock-cart to help you change your coordinates on the surface of earth!
Safety needs: You probably consider to be safer than local train/ auto/ taxi/ air travel. It’s probably all about having confidence in the seat-belts, the air-bag, the anti-collision bars, etc, etc. However, driving here sounds more like a compulsion and you would rather have a chauffer than drive yourself.
Belonging needs: This is when things start to get interesting and the real motivation starts to show up, when you feel the strong need to belong to the driving fraternity! Call it peer pressure, driving at this stage is all to prove a point ‘so can I’
Esteem needs: This is a fairly high-up need, when one starts thinking of driving as a career, when one thinks of driving in terms of achievements be it distance covered in a day or a how far did the speedometer stretch, etc. This stage is probably all about the 'drive to drive'!
Self-actualization: The ultimate level of motivation, when you drive not to attain something, but simply ‘coz you strongly believe that driving is what life is all about. This is the highest level of motivation, when distance, speed, power, etc loose relevance - it’s all about enjoying the feel of steering wheel, the gear, accelerator, brake and clutch!
Well, that's it for this post, didn't come out as funny as I once thought it would. But who cares!
Friday, December 08, 2006
Optimal thinking to improve Quality-of-Life...
The previous post on optimal thinking left a few very basic questions unanswered. Here is an attempt to solve some part of that mystery, though not quite there yet, but an attempt nevertheless.
I found one comment very interesting - will there be enough to look forward to in life if things were all perfect? Do we need to go through times when we feel “the entire world is against me” to appreciate the good side to life? Do we need to go into a shell of our own making to motivate ourselves? Frankly, I do not know that the answer to this riddle is, but my guess is that it probably gets down to individual personalities and what we expect out of life. The good thing about any argument around personalities is that there is no right or wrong answer!
So, I thought, before we get back to optimal thinking, may be it is important to know what is the eventual goal or the objective function here? To put in very philosophical words, what’s the eventual goal of life? I follow very little of philosophy or literature on this, but what I have observed, there are many ways that we as individuals could define the end-goal of life.
From what I have heard and read, most people look for happiness eventually. But, somehow I have found it a bit too abstract and difficult to comprehend, evaluate and measure. So, here is another attempt to define the eventual goal – must say it is still preliminary and based on feedback that I get to this post, I will continue to refine it.
I define the ultimate measure as “quality-of-life” – well, it sounds just as abstract as happiness! - Just that there is a bit more of thought behind this. My definition of ‘quality-of-life’ revolves around two key dimensions with one often a trade-off to the other:
I found one comment very interesting - will there be enough to look forward to in life if things were all perfect? Do we need to go through times when we feel “the entire world is against me” to appreciate the good side to life? Do we need to go into a shell of our own making to motivate ourselves? Frankly, I do not know that the answer to this riddle is, but my guess is that it probably gets down to individual personalities and what we expect out of life. The good thing about any argument around personalities is that there is no right or wrong answer!
So, I thought, before we get back to optimal thinking, may be it is important to know what is the eventual goal or the objective function here? To put in very philosophical words, what’s the eventual goal of life? I follow very little of philosophy or literature on this, but what I have observed, there are many ways that we as individuals could define the end-goal of life.
From what I have heard and read, most people look for happiness eventually. But, somehow I have found it a bit too abstract and difficult to comprehend, evaluate and measure. So, here is another attempt to define the eventual goal – must say it is still preliminary and based on feedback that I get to this post, I will continue to refine it.
I define the ultimate measure as “quality-of-life” – well, it sounds just as abstract as happiness! - Just that there is a bit more of thought behind this. My definition of ‘quality-of-life’ revolves around two key dimensions with one often a trade-off to the other:
- Success – Sounds too measured and profession-related, but on the contrary, success here is how we measure on various dimensions of life that matter the most to us. Each one of us would have a unique definition to ‘success’ – probably, a weighted average of personal life, career, education, helping others and society, making an impact, etc, etc.
- Stress – Not the exact word I wanted to use here, I thought of ‘input’, but then after a bit of thought, decided to stick with stress. Essentially, the factor that reduces the overall quality of life.
These 2 dimensions feed into the quality-of-life matrix as shown. Before going into the specific details of the matrix and the inferences, there are a few things to note here:
- Measure of success should be very internal - it is a comparison to our ‘full potential’ as opposed to how we rate vs. others. It’s not about how I am vs. my neighbour, friend, etc
- The matrix is not a comparison of individual A vs. B – the points are only for illustration and if we plot ourselves at different periods of time, that would somewhat fill the matrix up.
Okay, so what does the quality-of-life matrix have to say? Here are some of the key inferences from the matrix:
- We all should strive for top left corner – high success, low stress would be the ideal thing to look for. The exact opposite is the bottom right corner.
- The 7 quality-of-life indifference bands have a great message. Look at points A, B and C – essentially these have the same quality-of-life, with very different approaches and outcomes. Point A is someone who is striving for his full-potential; however the resulting stress is high. Point B, is the same individual, now having a balance between stress levels and ambitions/ success. Point C, is the chill dude, low success, but low stress as well – and all 3 points have the same quality-of-life.
- At different times and different phases of our lives, we would have probably seen most parts of the matrix, reflecting very different quality-of-life.
- Once we have identified where we stand, this is when optimal thinking steps in. “What’s the best I could do to improve my quality-of-life?”
Let us try applying optimal thinking to some of the points of the matrix:
- If I am at point H, negative thinking would mean I say “My life is doomed, any sympathy please?” Positive thinking on the other hand would result in “I hope things will be fine”.
- An optimal thinker however would attack the problem is two possible ways:
One, how do I reduce my stress levels?
Two, how do I then improve my success levels in order to have a better quality of life. - It’s perfectly fine to transform from H to C right away.
Well, that’s it for this post. I tried to connect two very different things – end-goal of life with optimal thinking as these are somewhat inter-related. I understand that the entire concept is still in the preliminary stage, so would appreciate comments and feedback.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Optimal Thinking...
I like to alternate between serious and funny posts on this blog – however, I will deviate a bit from that norm today - for one I know that I can easily make up for not-so-serious-posts anytime with minimal effort!
Anyways, not withstanding the sequencing of this blog, this post is about optimal thinking - a term carved out from the title of a book that I have been reading intermittently over the last few weeks.
Before going deeper into the concept of optimal thinking, let me state that I am still in process of reading the book, let alone understanding it fully or mastering the topic.
So, what is optimal thinking all about? Prior to reading this book my understanding of the ‘reaction’ world comprised of two extremes:
Anyways, not withstanding the sequencing of this blog, this post is about optimal thinking - a term carved out from the title of a book that I have been reading intermittently over the last few weeks.
Before going deeper into the concept of optimal thinking, let me state that I am still in process of reading the book, let alone understanding it fully or mastering the topic.
So, what is optimal thinking all about? Prior to reading this book my understanding of the ‘reaction’ world comprised of two extremes:
- Positive thinking – as an individual, you try to be in a positive frame of mind, the underlying philosophy being a positive intent enhances the chance of a positive result
- Negative thinking – often as individuals, we get into the negative thinking groove. Though it sounds as simple as a crib, in my view, negative thinking is often used to dissociate oneself from the outcome/situation. In some ways, we either try putting the blame on externalities or take it all on ourselves and confide in a shell of our own making
Interestingly, there are 2 major problems with the above:
- Both positive and negative thinking are not based on ‘reality’ or ‘sound assessment of current situation’ – a positive thinker would say all is great, superb, perfect, etc to have an aura of positive feelings around, while thinking negatively, we simply assume the worst and feel sad/stressed about it
- There is little action that results out of positive or negative thinking. Having eluded the truth, positive thinking would result in “all is great, do nothing” while negative thinking results in higher focus on emotions and stress, again leading to no constructive action – “the world is against me, I really can’t help it!”
This is where optimal thinking steps in. Optimal thinking is all about having a good assessment of the situation and then immediately focusing on two very important words – “what next?” – Sounds simple, but come to think about it, might be a bit difficult to practice. However, training one’s thought process around “the truth” and then thinking about “what next” repeatedly is all that is needed to start thinking optimally.
One key question remains to be answered though – How do we know in what frame of mind are we in? The following could help us estimate where we stand in terms of our thought process:
- If our immediate reaction to a situation is “that’s great”, “big achievement!”, “nothing to worry here and stay chill”, etc, then we are probably in the “fake” positive thinking mould
- On the contrary, if our reactions revolve around “I am very bad at this”, “The entire world is against me”, “Things always head the wrong way with me” or if we react to situations with anger and frustration, then probably we are wearing the negative thinking cap.
Whereas, thinking optimally, in the ideal world, the reaction should be “this is how things are” (with almost zero focus on emotions) and then immediately shift to “so, what next” or “what’s the best that I can do to …”
To sum it all up, I have tried to illustrate the optimal thinking process with flow chart in graphical format to make this post easy to understand. (see pic above)
Please do get back to me with comments and thoughts, while I will continue to research deeper into this rather interesting topic with a reasonable upside to making a difference we lead our lives.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Driving Milestones...
This is going to be a very different post, but one that is of great importance to me personally. This is about my driving experiences in the past and a view to the future. To most people, it might mean nothing, just that driving is my passion and I like to register every important event and milestone in my kitty! So, all professional drivers, driving and auto-enthusiast and those having patience to read long posts, please fasten your seat belts, shift to top gear and vroooom to this very special post! Here we go...
Before moving on to the more interesting part, let me first give an introduction to how it all started…
History
As a child, all I did was to collect Leo trucks, I could spend hours playing with my trucks, I would make bridges and mountain roads and all possible difficult terrains to “imagine” the challenge of driving my truck there - from my 7th birthday or so, every year my parents would get me one Leo truck (I still remember my first yellow truck with red front and black chassis). This went on for years – every birthday meant a truck, to the extent that my parents would say “score 90% in the next exam and you will have your truck!” My lack of success at school exams meant lesser trucks than I could have had, but I kept getting my birthday trucks year after year till the time I had a fleet.
This went on till early teens – when I started to realize that my friends were having a laugh about my favourite birthday present. Peer pressure as they call it, I decided against buying any further trucks, but there was no way I would let anyone else take away my existing fleet of trucks. When I went to hostel for under-grad, I locked up my trucks and told my mom – “this shelf of my cupboard has to stay this way – no compromises!”
Getting to the steering wheel…
I actually didn’t drive till I was 18 – went exactly by the books. My parents had a simple rule for me – “Do anything till the car doesn’t move!” So while I patiently waited for my 18th birthday, I did everything possible within that set boundary limit – ranging from changing the tyre of a heavy Ambassador car when I was like 8 years old, to opening the carburetor, fuel filter and spark plugs of the Maruti when I was probably 11 years old, etc, etc…
However, my road experience started at the age of 16. Time pressure for attending a million classes for school and IIT-coaching meant that, I needed a “vandi” so that I could be on my own. I got a Bajaj Sunny – the only 2-wheeler that I could legally drive at the age of 16 and when it comes to driving, I follow all possible rules. I drove it all in city, from home to school to classes and in two years it clocked 13,000 kms! Though most teenagers would prefer bikes, I was somehow never mentally inclined towards bikes and so having my Sunny was good, but not terrific.
Finally, it was the time to get behind the steering wheel – just after turning 18, I got my license – again without paying a single extra rupee at RTO, wanted to get it on merit!
The starting of a career…
Having lived in hostel all the way, my only opportunity to drive was when I came back home. Till date, it has all been a self-learning process – all from observation than training. When I started driving, I was quick to learn the basics of driving and was what I call as “in control” on city roads rather quickly. Even today, I continue to be a defensive driver in city - slow to pick-up, I like to keep the engine at low rpm in city – experience the smoothness instead of power.
My first real highway drive was in 1999 December, from Chennai – Bangalore. It was probably my biggest learning experience as well. It took me half an hour to overtake the first truck – a combination of heavy oncoming traffic and a wrong gauge of “when to change the gear”. I was in 5th at 40kmph, of-course the damn thing will have no pick-up at such low rpm!
Anyways, I sorted that out and made it to Bangalore – felt good to have ~350 kms on my CV – now it seems nothing, but it was a big confidence booster then. Way back from Bangalore was a lot easy, I had gotten used to gear changes by then, and moved on to experiment with something known as “engine braking” to slow down the car – not many people do this, but to keep car in control while braking at high speeds, apart from brakes, getting the car to lower gears helps in keeping control.
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : 360 kms
Max Speed : 120 kmph
My next drive was to Chennai – Kodaikanal – Munnar – Chennai, sometime in May 2000. I was so exited about the trip that I didn’t sleep the night before we were to start for the trip! We started at about 4am in the morning from Chennai to Kodaikanal - a distance of 760 kms, including 60 kms of hill drive – I probably drove for 12-13 hours that day. That was starting of a dream, when I realized, that long distance driving is not impossible. The next day was even more challenging. I drove from Kodaikanal to Munnar – the road was under construction, it was raining heavily, there was a bit of land slide on the way and it was all hilly terrain. Till today, that remains the most challenging driving experience – not in terms of distance though (might have been 300 at max). All in all, that trip was close to 1800kms and I enjoyed every bit of it.
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : 760 kms
Max Speed : 125 kmph
Next 2-3 years saw a few more trips to Bangalore and to other places near-by. However, there was no real long drive for a long time. (I define a long drive as >600 kms in a day or more than 12 hours of drive in a day).
Joining the big league…
My driving CV was heading nowhere. I had not added anything significant to my driving achievements for more than 3 years. The ice had to be broken – 300 kms a day was by far not exciting anymore - a quantum jump was required to get my driving career on track. I finally got a chance in April 2005, when soon after convocation, a few of us decided to experience the leap jump that India had started making in infrastructure – “Golden Quadrangle”, highways connecting the four major cities had just been made then. We initially thought of going for an all-India trip, but time and budget constrains made us cut it down to a South and Central India trip. The route that we took was Chennai-Bangalore-Goa-Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Vijaywada-Chennai. This trip was spread over 9 days, the odometer clocked 3500 kms and I probably drove for about 2500 kms. Full details of the trip are on a separate blog that I created then:
http://wimwi-road-trip.blogspot.com/
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : ~800 kms
Max Speed : 130 kmph
This was the “inflection point” that I needed to believe that a world tour is not out of reach! This year in June, I did it again, this time a Chennai-Mumbai-Chennai – drove for over 3300 kms (I did allow my dad to drive 55 kms!). The road trip in 2005 had been with friends with everyone pitching in to drive, now was the time to do it all by myself.
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : ~800 kms
Max Speed : 160 kmph
Recent achievements…
Well, till recently, every meter of my driving experience had been in India. However, I moved to CapeTown for a short stint here sometime back and found 2 very encouraging things – 1) Right hand drive (same as India) is the norm here and 2) Indian License is okay to drive here!
I have had a chance to do 2 trips here till now. The first one was a symbolic one – first long drive outside India, but I would remember it more for scenery along the drive from Cape Town to Cape Point.
The 2nd one was an achievement. I broke the 1000 kms in a day barrier! This was a drive from Cape Town to Knysna and back. The roads here are very good and there is hardly any traffic beyond the extended city. I went with a friend here for the drive – started at around 8:45 am and we were back in CapeTown by 9pm. The entire trip was all driving, plus a 2 hour stop over for lunch and a few clicks!
I was driving a Toyota Corolla Automatic – didn’t enjoy the automatic part much, on a highway I would much rather decide when to change gears myself than be in a situation where the decision is forced on by a computer chip that tries to optimize the gear changes! Anyways, the car was really good, very aerodynamic and it felt in complete control at high speeds. I did 1000kms in less than 10 hours of driving, an idea of road conditions and the car quality perhaps.
Interestingly enough, when I came back to CapeTown, the odometer read 990kms. Didn't want this to be a "so close, yet so far", so I drove for 10kms in the city before heading back home - all just to meet the milestone. Looking back, it does sound funny :-)
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : 1001 kms
Max Speed : 177 kmph
The road ahead…
A world tour has been at the back of my mind for a real long time now. The good thing is that the idea has started to make sense now, though I know it is still a long way to go. Around the world in quickest time would be a bit too tough to get to, but might not be impossible. These plans might involve 25-30,000 kms of driving, does sound a bit too far-fetched, but it is still possible in my books. To get there, there are a few more requirements that I need to work towards:
Before moving on to the more interesting part, let me first give an introduction to how it all started…
History
As a child, all I did was to collect Leo trucks, I could spend hours playing with my trucks, I would make bridges and mountain roads and all possible difficult terrains to “imagine” the challenge of driving my truck there - from my 7th birthday or so, every year my parents would get me one Leo truck (I still remember my first yellow truck with red front and black chassis). This went on for years – every birthday meant a truck, to the extent that my parents would say “score 90% in the next exam and you will have your truck!” My lack of success at school exams meant lesser trucks than I could have had, but I kept getting my birthday trucks year after year till the time I had a fleet.
This went on till early teens – when I started to realize that my friends were having a laugh about my favourite birthday present. Peer pressure as they call it, I decided against buying any further trucks, but there was no way I would let anyone else take away my existing fleet of trucks. When I went to hostel for under-grad, I locked up my trucks and told my mom – “this shelf of my cupboard has to stay this way – no compromises!”
Getting to the steering wheel…
I actually didn’t drive till I was 18 – went exactly by the books. My parents had a simple rule for me – “Do anything till the car doesn’t move!” So while I patiently waited for my 18th birthday, I did everything possible within that set boundary limit – ranging from changing the tyre of a heavy Ambassador car when I was like 8 years old, to opening the carburetor, fuel filter and spark plugs of the Maruti when I was probably 11 years old, etc, etc…
However, my road experience started at the age of 16. Time pressure for attending a million classes for school and IIT-coaching meant that, I needed a “vandi” so that I could be on my own. I got a Bajaj Sunny – the only 2-wheeler that I could legally drive at the age of 16 and when it comes to driving, I follow all possible rules. I drove it all in city, from home to school to classes and in two years it clocked 13,000 kms! Though most teenagers would prefer bikes, I was somehow never mentally inclined towards bikes and so having my Sunny was good, but not terrific.
Finally, it was the time to get behind the steering wheel – just after turning 18, I got my license – again without paying a single extra rupee at RTO, wanted to get it on merit!
The starting of a career…
Having lived in hostel all the way, my only opportunity to drive was when I came back home. Till date, it has all been a self-learning process – all from observation than training. When I started driving, I was quick to learn the basics of driving and was what I call as “in control” on city roads rather quickly. Even today, I continue to be a defensive driver in city - slow to pick-up, I like to keep the engine at low rpm in city – experience the smoothness instead of power.
My first real highway drive was in 1999 December, from Chennai – Bangalore. It was probably my biggest learning experience as well. It took me half an hour to overtake the first truck – a combination of heavy oncoming traffic and a wrong gauge of “when to change the gear”. I was in 5th at 40kmph, of-course the damn thing will have no pick-up at such low rpm!
Anyways, I sorted that out and made it to Bangalore – felt good to have ~350 kms on my CV – now it seems nothing, but it was a big confidence booster then. Way back from Bangalore was a lot easy, I had gotten used to gear changes by then, and moved on to experiment with something known as “engine braking” to slow down the car – not many people do this, but to keep car in control while braking at high speeds, apart from brakes, getting the car to lower gears helps in keeping control.
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : 360 kms
Max Speed : 120 kmph
My next drive was to Chennai – Kodaikanal – Munnar – Chennai, sometime in May 2000. I was so exited about the trip that I didn’t sleep the night before we were to start for the trip! We started at about 4am in the morning from Chennai to Kodaikanal - a distance of 760 kms, including 60 kms of hill drive – I probably drove for 12-13 hours that day. That was starting of a dream, when I realized, that long distance driving is not impossible. The next day was even more challenging. I drove from Kodaikanal to Munnar – the road was under construction, it was raining heavily, there was a bit of land slide on the way and it was all hilly terrain. Till today, that remains the most challenging driving experience – not in terms of distance though (might have been 300 at max). All in all, that trip was close to 1800kms and I enjoyed every bit of it.
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : 760 kms
Max Speed : 125 kmph
Next 2-3 years saw a few more trips to Bangalore and to other places near-by. However, there was no real long drive for a long time. (I define a long drive as >600 kms in a day or more than 12 hours of drive in a day).
Joining the big league…
My driving CV was heading nowhere. I had not added anything significant to my driving achievements for more than 3 years. The ice had to be broken – 300 kms a day was by far not exciting anymore - a quantum jump was required to get my driving career on track. I finally got a chance in April 2005, when soon after convocation, a few of us decided to experience the leap jump that India had started making in infrastructure – “Golden Quadrangle”, highways connecting the four major cities had just been made then. We initially thought of going for an all-India trip, but time and budget constrains made us cut it down to a South and Central India trip. The route that we took was Chennai-Bangalore-Goa-Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Vijaywada-Chennai. This trip was spread over 9 days, the odometer clocked 3500 kms and I probably drove for about 2500 kms. Full details of the trip are on a separate blog that I created then:
http://wimwi-road-trip.blogspot.com/
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : ~800 kms
Max Speed : 130 kmph
This was the “inflection point” that I needed to believe that a world tour is not out of reach! This year in June, I did it again, this time a Chennai-Mumbai-Chennai – drove for over 3300 kms (I did allow my dad to drive 55 kms!). The road trip in 2005 had been with friends with everyone pitching in to drive, now was the time to do it all by myself.
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : ~800 kms
Max Speed : 160 kmph
Recent achievements…
Well, till recently, every meter of my driving experience had been in India. However, I moved to CapeTown for a short stint here sometime back and found 2 very encouraging things – 1) Right hand drive (same as India) is the norm here and 2) Indian License is okay to drive here!
I have had a chance to do 2 trips here till now. The first one was a symbolic one – first long drive outside India, but I would remember it more for scenery along the drive from Cape Town to Cape Point.
The 2nd one was an achievement. I broke the 1000 kms in a day barrier! This was a drive from Cape Town to Knysna and back. The roads here are very good and there is hardly any traffic beyond the extended city. I went with a friend here for the drive – started at around 8:45 am and we were back in CapeTown by 9pm. The entire trip was all driving, plus a 2 hour stop over for lunch and a few clicks!
I was driving a Toyota Corolla Automatic – didn’t enjoy the automatic part much, on a highway I would much rather decide when to change gears myself than be in a situation where the decision is forced on by a computer chip that tries to optimize the gear changes! Anyways, the car was really good, very aerodynamic and it felt in complete control at high speeds. I did 1000kms in less than 10 hours of driving, an idea of road conditions and the car quality perhaps.
Interestingly enough, when I came back to CapeTown, the odometer read 990kms. Didn't want this to be a "so close, yet so far", so I drove for 10kms in the city before heading back home - all just to meet the milestone. Looking back, it does sound funny :-)
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : 1001 kms
Max Speed : 177 kmph
The road ahead…
A world tour has been at the back of my mind for a real long time now. The good thing is that the idea has started to make sense now, though I know it is still a long way to go. Around the world in quickest time would be a bit too tough to get to, but might not be impossible. These plans might involve 25-30,000 kms of driving, does sound a bit too far-fetched, but it is still possible in my books. To get there, there are a few more requirements that I need to work towards:
- Testing myself for long distances a few more times and building up the stamina to take it for 40-50 days on a trot
- A co-driver with high passion and energy for driving. Maharaj might just join me for the trip, given he has very similar ambitions
- Logistics – would be a long process to take care of visas, permission, license rules, modifying the car to sustain for so long, etc, etc
- And equally importantly, a sponsor to pay for the fuel bills and other expenses! :-)
So, does sound like a bit too far off, but hopefully in the next 4-8 years, I will give it a try. Till then, I will continue improving my driving skills, and more importantly, get an understanding of what it would take to do this. The real inspiring thing is that an Indian couple held the world record for fastest around the globe for sometime – they did the entire trip in a Hindustan Motors Contessa 1.8L. Now, I believe, the record has been broken and is currently held by some British passionate drivers!
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Victoria Falls and Zambezi Rafting
Not too long ago, a month back, I drove down to Cape Point over Champman’s peak and I thought, well it can’t get better than this. The view was stunning and gorgeous, tall mountains on one side and vast blue ocean on the other side. The view from Cape Point and the drive down there was by far the best view I had seen.
A month down the line, Cape Point has however slipped to second spot in my memory – the reason being a trip to Victoria Falls, one of the 7 wonders of the world. Let me guide you through the experience.
We started from Capetown on a Friday, a hopping flight to Livingstone via Johannesburg to reach the Zambia side of the falls. Before I go on to describe further, here is a crisp introduction to Victoria Falls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Falls
Day 1 at Victoria Falls
The pictures on Wikipedia depict the falls in peak rainy season. They then swell up to 1.7 kms in width, however at other times the river is not as wide. So, we walked over dry portion of the falls (the right end of the 4th picture on Wikipedia link). We walked over the rocky terrain, maneuvering through the slippery shaky rocks - half way through I wished I had a high ground clearance four wheel drive and that would have been some challenge! Anyways, we walked till the point where we were stopped by illegal security men. The walk back was a bit more challenging with a few drops of rain making the rocks a fraction more slippery. We managed to take a few pics of the falls and equally gasping wide and tall prominent fracture in the earth’s crust that resulted in creation of these falls – apparently it was a platonic shift that took place a hundred thousand years ago. We got back to the hotel before it got too dark – a well deserved dinner and we called it a day, all in excitement for the day that was to follow.
Day 2 at Victoria Falls
Day 2, it was time for water rafting - with a rather early morning for a Saturday, we were picked by the rafting tour operator. We trekked down the rocky mountain to get to the place where the rafting was to be flagged off. In the process, we signed a few legal disclaimers that actually added to the excitement (or is fear the right word?)! I had never done rafting before, so I actually didn’t have a clue to what was to follow - add to it, my limited swimming skills and experience meant that I had to rely on life jacket a lot more than some of the others around who had done this before!
With our rafting boats inflated, it was time to step in. First 5-10 minutes were pure instructions:
“Left turn” – meant those on the right paddled forward, on the left backwards and yeah, the exact opposite for “Right turn”, “Forward” meant keep pedaling but the most important instruction was “Get Down” - we had to stop pushing forward and get to inside base of the raft and somehow try to hold on to the ropes at the outer end. The first dip in the water was useful – helped me realize that it would be tough to get back without help!
There we go, its time to get to a series of 10 rapids, most of these of class 4 and 5, a couple of class 3 rapids. A class 6 rapid is almost a waterfall, so class 5 and 4 are challenging for sure. Just to help you understand, definition of a class 5 rapid is: “Long and violent rapids. Large waves that are unavoidable, Complex course, Scouting is a must”!! Here is the description of the rapids that we went through:
The first rapid was called rapid #3, nice one to get off to a start. We pedaled forward and then went down to make the raft stable. We had survived the first one with no one falling off – that was a bit of a confidence booster! This was probably the last “unnamed” rapid.
Rapid #4 was called “Morning Glory” somewhere between a class 4 and a 5, this was a challenge. The very force with which water hit us and the angle at the rapid was scary at the first go and 5 seconds later the reaction was “wow”! The status of our raft was – No one down till now and we were keeping things nice and steady.
Rapid #5 was “Stairway to Heaven” – this was a class 5 rapid and trust me there was a lot more of aggression to this one than depicted by the name that Led Zeppelin originally thought of! Till the tip of the rapid, I thought its going to be as calm as “Stairway to Heaven”, but suddenly reality struck us hard as we went down possibly 5-7 meters in our raft down the voluminous rapid. We stayed intact and then raised our pedals in celebration and parked our raft to see other rafts fight the battle. The next raft followed the same path and as I saw them go down I was like “Did we really really manage to do that? I am putting this on my CV for sure!” The third raft however had a bit of a nasty experience with 2 of them finding themselves off the raft. We then assumed the role of the rescue boat, got to this guy and pulled him up our raft. He was terrified and wanted to leave right there – it took him a couple of minutes to relax down and be part of the party again.
Rapid #6 was “devil’s toilet”, a class 4, all three rafts made through with reasonable comfort. We still had our record intact – no one off the raft as yet and we started to believe that we were the real professionals out there!
Rapid #7 was “Gulivers Travels”, a class 5. We had to push hard to gain some momentum here to help us steer in the right direction as we went down the rapid with a strong stream of water flowing from the direction perpendicular to our motion. We were warned that the raft could overturn here - the idea to hold on to the raft for as long as possible. As we went though this rapid, we did manage to keep the raft stable, but it ended up being a bit nasty with tons of water all over – However, eventually, Mr. Buoyancy (!!) helped our raft back to the water surface.
The bottom-line however still was that we remained “all intact”. We did it in great style, going down just at the right time and making sure we hold on to our respective corners. The front portion of the raft did go deep in water and I was like cough cough by the time we came out. However, it was time to raise our pedals and scream out "Yyyooo" again. We remain unscathed!
Rapid #8 was “Midnight Diner”– a set of 3 rapids. This was challenging. We had to again pedal hard and get through the first rapid (class 3), get the momentum high enough so that we could steer through heavy forces of the water flowing in the other direction and then go through a narrow gap down to the other 2 rapids. The first one was a piece of cake; the next two were not the worst we had been though. These were class 4 rapids, so we were fairly confident and we therefore chose the difficult path on this one rather than the option of having the easy way out by the side.
So, we went down the class 4 rapid expecting to come out of it stable. However, mid way through, I suddenly found water all over me. My first reaction was that probably the entire raft went under water, so I was like clam and relaxed for a few microseconds. A moment later, I thought there is way too much water all around and I am no more on the raft. This was when the reality struck – I was off the raft and I did not manage to hold on to the raft rope!!! *#^@!” Find it funny now, but at that moment I was a bit terrified. It was all a matter of 5 seconds, I was back on water surface with life jacket keeping me afloat. And then I thought, I should do my bit and try to swim as well! That was not required though, within a couple of seconds I could see the raft again and it was easy going from there on – got back close to the raft and I was then pulled up. Phew!!
Rapid #9 – “Commercial Suicide” was a class 6, almost a waterfall and only the highly professional can do it. So, we took it easy there and got off the raft and climbed down the rocks.
Our final rapid was Rapid #10 – “Gnashing Jaws of Death” – a class 4 again, which we did with relative ease – I was probably a bit defensive this time and got down well before we were told to do so!
For detailed description of the rapids, visit:
http://whitewater.safpar.com/zambezi_rapids.htm
This was followed by around 250 meters of almost vertical climb, too tiring after the 2 hour adventure and I took a bit more time to do it than some of the others who have been regulars to gym!!
It had been 2 hrs of absolute fun and excitement – possibly the most challenging experience I have ever had. This was a big part of the reason why I moved Victoria Falls trip a notch higher than the view at Cape Point.
Day 3 at Victoria Falls
The final day started with a “game” trip to Zambezi wild life. Saw a few wild animals, a few clicks to add to the trip snaps, but nothing as exciting as the previous day. Then I got a helicopter ride of the falls and region around it. It was just amazing to see Victoria Falls from up there - the wide river Zambezi falling into a crack on the surface of Earth, the tiny particles of misty cloud-like water particles created by the very force of the falls is a sight I would remember for a long time.
We flew back that afternoon to Cape Town, ending what had been an amazing trip. I haven’t seen too many places the world over, but for the little that I have, this was probably the best experience and view. I did give a serious thought about having water rafting as a back-up profession, but decided to stay with driving! The next post, when I get some time window, will be on driving experiences in South Africa.
A month down the line, Cape Point has however slipped to second spot in my memory – the reason being a trip to Victoria Falls, one of the 7 wonders of the world. Let me guide you through the experience.
We started from Capetown on a Friday, a hopping flight to Livingstone via Johannesburg to reach the Zambia side of the falls. Before I go on to describe further, here is a crisp introduction to Victoria Falls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Falls
Day 1 at Victoria Falls
The pictures on Wikipedia depict the falls in peak rainy season. They then swell up to 1.7 kms in width, however at other times the river is not as wide. So, we walked over dry portion of the falls (the right end of the 4th picture on Wikipedia link). We walked over the rocky terrain, maneuvering through the slippery shaky rocks - half way through I wished I had a high ground clearance four wheel drive and that would have been some challenge! Anyways, we walked till the point where we were stopped by illegal security men. The walk back was a bit more challenging with a few drops of rain making the rocks a fraction more slippery. We managed to take a few pics of the falls and equally gasping wide and tall prominent fracture in the earth’s crust that resulted in creation of these falls – apparently it was a platonic shift that took place a hundred thousand years ago. We got back to the hotel before it got too dark – a well deserved dinner and we called it a day, all in excitement for the day that was to follow.
Day 2 at Victoria Falls
Day 2, it was time for water rafting - with a rather early morning for a Saturday, we were picked by the rafting tour operator. We trekked down the rocky mountain to get to the place where the rafting was to be flagged off. In the process, we signed a few legal disclaimers that actually added to the excitement (or is fear the right word?)! I had never done rafting before, so I actually didn’t have a clue to what was to follow - add to it, my limited swimming skills and experience meant that I had to rely on life jacket a lot more than some of the others around who had done this before!
With our rafting boats inflated, it was time to step in. First 5-10 minutes were pure instructions:
“Left turn” – meant those on the right paddled forward, on the left backwards and yeah, the exact opposite for “Right turn”, “Forward” meant keep pedaling but the most important instruction was “Get Down” - we had to stop pushing forward and get to inside base of the raft and somehow try to hold on to the ropes at the outer end. The first dip in the water was useful – helped me realize that it would be tough to get back without help!
There we go, its time to get to a series of 10 rapids, most of these of class 4 and 5, a couple of class 3 rapids. A class 6 rapid is almost a waterfall, so class 5 and 4 are challenging for sure. Just to help you understand, definition of a class 5 rapid is: “Long and violent rapids. Large waves that are unavoidable, Complex course, Scouting is a must”!! Here is the description of the rapids that we went through:
The first rapid was called rapid #3, nice one to get off to a start. We pedaled forward and then went down to make the raft stable. We had survived the first one with no one falling off – that was a bit of a confidence booster! This was probably the last “unnamed” rapid.
Rapid #4 was called “Morning Glory” somewhere between a class 4 and a 5, this was a challenge. The very force with which water hit us and the angle at the rapid was scary at the first go and 5 seconds later the reaction was “wow”! The status of our raft was – No one down till now and we were keeping things nice and steady.
Rapid #5 was “Stairway to Heaven” – this was a class 5 rapid and trust me there was a lot more of aggression to this one than depicted by the name that Led Zeppelin originally thought of! Till the tip of the rapid, I thought its going to be as calm as “Stairway to Heaven”, but suddenly reality struck us hard as we went down possibly 5-7 meters in our raft down the voluminous rapid. We stayed intact and then raised our pedals in celebration and parked our raft to see other rafts fight the battle. The next raft followed the same path and as I saw them go down I was like “Did we really really manage to do that? I am putting this on my CV for sure!” The third raft however had a bit of a nasty experience with 2 of them finding themselves off the raft. We then assumed the role of the rescue boat, got to this guy and pulled him up our raft. He was terrified and wanted to leave right there – it took him a couple of minutes to relax down and be part of the party again.
Rapid #6 was “devil’s toilet”, a class 4, all three rafts made through with reasonable comfort. We still had our record intact – no one off the raft as yet and we started to believe that we were the real professionals out there!
Rapid #7 was “Gulivers Travels”, a class 5. We had to push hard to gain some momentum here to help us steer in the right direction as we went down the rapid with a strong stream of water flowing from the direction perpendicular to our motion. We were warned that the raft could overturn here - the idea to hold on to the raft for as long as possible. As we went though this rapid, we did manage to keep the raft stable, but it ended up being a bit nasty with tons of water all over – However, eventually, Mr. Buoyancy (!!) helped our raft back to the water surface.
The bottom-line however still was that we remained “all intact”. We did it in great style, going down just at the right time and making sure we hold on to our respective corners. The front portion of the raft did go deep in water and I was like cough cough by the time we came out. However, it was time to raise our pedals and scream out "Yyyooo" again. We remain unscathed!
Rapid #8 was “Midnight Diner”– a set of 3 rapids. This was challenging. We had to again pedal hard and get through the first rapid (class 3), get the momentum high enough so that we could steer through heavy forces of the water flowing in the other direction and then go through a narrow gap down to the other 2 rapids. The first one was a piece of cake; the next two were not the worst we had been though. These were class 4 rapids, so we were fairly confident and we therefore chose the difficult path on this one rather than the option of having the easy way out by the side.
So, we went down the class 4 rapid expecting to come out of it stable. However, mid way through, I suddenly found water all over me. My first reaction was that probably the entire raft went under water, so I was like clam and relaxed for a few microseconds. A moment later, I thought there is way too much water all around and I am no more on the raft. This was when the reality struck – I was off the raft and I did not manage to hold on to the raft rope!!! *#^@!” Find it funny now, but at that moment I was a bit terrified. It was all a matter of 5 seconds, I was back on water surface with life jacket keeping me afloat. And then I thought, I should do my bit and try to swim as well! That was not required though, within a couple of seconds I could see the raft again and it was easy going from there on – got back close to the raft and I was then pulled up. Phew!!
Rapid #9 – “Commercial Suicide” was a class 6, almost a waterfall and only the highly professional can do it. So, we took it easy there and got off the raft and climbed down the rocks.
Our final rapid was Rapid #10 – “Gnashing Jaws of Death” – a class 4 again, which we did with relative ease – I was probably a bit defensive this time and got down well before we were told to do so!
For detailed description of the rapids, visit:
http://whitewater.safpar.com/zambezi_rapids.htm
This was followed by around 250 meters of almost vertical climb, too tiring after the 2 hour adventure and I took a bit more time to do it than some of the others who have been regulars to gym!!
It had been 2 hrs of absolute fun and excitement – possibly the most challenging experience I have ever had. This was a big part of the reason why I moved Victoria Falls trip a notch higher than the view at Cape Point.
Day 3 at Victoria Falls
The final day started with a “game” trip to Zambezi wild life. Saw a few wild animals, a few clicks to add to the trip snaps, but nothing as exciting as the previous day. Then I got a helicopter ride of the falls and region around it. It was just amazing to see Victoria Falls from up there - the wide river Zambezi falling into a crack on the surface of Earth, the tiny particles of misty cloud-like water particles created by the very force of the falls is a sight I would remember for a long time.
We flew back that afternoon to Cape Town, ending what had been an amazing trip. I haven’t seen too many places the world over, but for the little that I have, this was probably the best experience and view. I did give a serious thought about having water rafting as a back-up profession, but decided to stay with driving! The next post, when I get some time window, will be on driving experiences in South Africa.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Welcome back Master Blaster!
This post might be 2-3 weeks too late, but as they say, better late than never. Was a bit caught up with work and travel, so didn't have a chance to get to blogger. Before this post, millions of reams of news-print, a billion journalist hours, a trillion television-hours have been invested by the world press and viewers in general - In this age of internet and blogging, I contribute to nothing more than a drop in the Ocean to this topic! - However, that by no means diminishes the importance of the topic of this post: after a 6-month injury lay-off, a warm welcome back to Sachin Tendulkar.
A marathon 141 not out of 148 deliveries, batting out the entire 50 overs, 5 sixes, 13 fours, ran just as hard as he did 17 years ago - I could go on and on praising Sachin's innings, but to sum it up, Master Blaster is back with a bang.
It might not have been the best innings that Tendulkar has played, but to me, it was probably the most important. He has virtually lost out at a year of cricket - starting from the black days of Tennis Elbow, sprinkled with indifferent form and then the long lay-off resulting from the shoulder operation. As he has accepted in his recent interviews, this was probably the toughest phase of his career - a slump in form due to injuries, commentators and experts in India sketching the end of his career (Endulkar is the term they used to grab media attention), injuries making himself unsure of the career ahead, etc, etc.
I am an ardent follower of Tendulkar - I keep a track of not just his scores, but almost anything that I can get hold to through secondary research. I have been doing this for a couple of years now - almost on a daily basis and sometimes on the hour, every hour - I end up with the following sequence of involuntary steps:
Double Click on internet explorer --> www.google.com --> type Sachin Tendulkar --> Click search --> Click news --> Click Sort by date!
What has been rather surprising over the last one year is that there are singificantly more news articles published when Tendulkar is injured than when it is "business-as-usual" for him i.e. when he is on the field and scoring runs. I could find news articles almost every half an hour on this topic - might just be someone's opinion on his elbow or shoulder injury, but so what, it was enough to help me get a picture of when would Tendulkar get back on field.
We all know Tendulkar the genius, the run-scoring machine, those 25,000 plus international runs, the consistent performer, the aggressive thinker and much of what he does serves as an inspiration, not just for us (a billion Indians), but many more around the world. However, there is much more to Sachin Tendulkar than just his cricketing skills and performance that makes him among the greatest that this world has seen. Let me highlight what in my view are three most important things that we can try to learn from Tendulkar:
A marathon 141 not out of 148 deliveries, batting out the entire 50 overs, 5 sixes, 13 fours, ran just as hard as he did 17 years ago - I could go on and on praising Sachin's innings, but to sum it up, Master Blaster is back with a bang.
It might not have been the best innings that Tendulkar has played, but to me, it was probably the most important. He has virtually lost out at a year of cricket - starting from the black days of Tennis Elbow, sprinkled with indifferent form and then the long lay-off resulting from the shoulder operation. As he has accepted in his recent interviews, this was probably the toughest phase of his career - a slump in form due to injuries, commentators and experts in India sketching the end of his career (Endulkar is the term they used to grab media attention), injuries making himself unsure of the career ahead, etc, etc.
I am an ardent follower of Tendulkar - I keep a track of not just his scores, but almost anything that I can get hold to through secondary research. I have been doing this for a couple of years now - almost on a daily basis and sometimes on the hour, every hour - I end up with the following sequence of involuntary steps:
Double Click on internet explorer --> www.google.com --> type Sachin Tendulkar --> Click search --> Click news --> Click Sort by date!
What has been rather surprising over the last one year is that there are singificantly more news articles published when Tendulkar is injured than when it is "business-as-usual" for him i.e. when he is on the field and scoring runs. I could find news articles almost every half an hour on this topic - might just be someone's opinion on his elbow or shoulder injury, but so what, it was enough to help me get a picture of when would Tendulkar get back on field.
We all know Tendulkar the genius, the run-scoring machine, those 25,000 plus international runs, the consistent performer, the aggressive thinker and much of what he does serves as an inspiration, not just for us (a billion Indians), but many more around the world. However, there is much more to Sachin Tendulkar than just his cricketing skills and performance that makes him among the greatest that this world has seen. Let me highlight what in my view are three most important things that we can try to learn from Tendulkar:
- The obvious: Sachin the performer - it's not just his hand-eye-coordination (a natural gift), but it's the effort he puts in - at 33, with all success behind him, he is still found spending more time at nets than younger players. At most times, Sachin has a very clear game plan based on his mental homework - bowlers to go after, when to play a subdued innings, working on his own game, etc. These are very important factors behind his success and surprisingly, it's much the same for rest of us in compeltely different careers.
- The basics: When you look at Tendulkar's life on and off the field, there has hardly been any controversy that he has ever ended up with. All through the match fixing scandal, I was very sure that Sachin would never have been a part of that 'gang' in the dressing room. Crtitics have positioned his lack-of-willingness to pay tax on a gifted car in the wrong light, but to me, Sachin has a very clear filter in his mind - no compromises on ethics and basics at any cost. Add to that, he is extremely modest and clearly has his head just an inch above the shoulders - just where it should be. Again, we all can draw a leaf from it.
- Communication: Getting back to the professional angle, I think, Sachin is a genius when it comes to communication. He might sound a bit diplomatic at times, but he never comes up with any provoking or loose statements. (as opposed to Warne, McGrath and likes) Infact, he often responds to criticism with 'no-negative-reaction' and instead lets his bat do the talking. I am not a 100% sure of this, but as much as I know from my secondary research, Sania Mirza and Narain Karthikeyan have had sessions with Tendulkar on two topics: 1) How to handle success? 2) How to manage media and communication? Most of us would probably never need to balance the media part, but we can probably learn a bit from the balanced well-thought way of communicating.
Phew! This has been a long post. But then, I really can't help it. Sachin probably has been the greatest influence on my life, outside the range of obvious circle. I didn't have much of sense for the first 9 years of my life. Ever since then, life has been simple - a good day is when Sachin scores a ton, rest of the days are just about average - and I have been fortunate enough to see 75 good days and hopefully there will be many more in the next few years... But, Sachin would retire one day... well, I haven't thought about my life after that!
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Right to freedom of speech/expression! :-)
The title of the blog speaks for itself! It has been sometime since I blogged last, part of the reason being a new job apart from the common consistent never-say-die factor governing the general inertia in life! Having said that, I have realised that the biggest threat to my blogging career is probably my lack of 'ideas'!
I was about to blog last weekend - spent good 15 minutes thinking about a topic, didn't manage to get anywhere! So has been the case today, making me question why I actually wanna blog? More so, in this world of open source (and yeah, my google backed blogger follows much the same logic), where I don't incur any cost to maintaining this blog... advertisers to blogspot make sure that burgeoning young bloggers like me don't find the incremental cost as an excuse!
So, back to square one, what do I blog about? Actually lots of stuff happening around, but nothing is worth a full post. Ahhaaaa... idea, a blog that's like a 5 minute interesting news update sounds like a plan... may be not, but more than anything else, gives me something to type without having to think...!!
Here we go: News correspondent Joseph Khanna reporting with our special guest news reader from Singapore
Politics
India' PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh has stated in his secret autobiography that Laloo Prasad Yadav should be made the next PM of India - "He has got Indian Railways to mind boggling overall profit of Rs. 11k crore and his vision would enable India to wipe out poverty, fiscal deficit, get to growth rate of 12% and overtake China by 2016". When asked to elaborate on how Laloo Prasad could get us to 'India Shining', PM Dr. Manmohan Singh said he was in high level discussions with Laloo's think tank Rabri Devi and in her view, the secret path to success would a involve step increase in India's cow and buffalo population - "Laloo kahaith hai ki bhains ka khayal rakhna chahiye... hum kahaith hain ki jitna sasuri bhainsawan ko badhaya jaye , utna desh ka bhala hoi hai"
Singapore correspondent: Cannot lah, Singapore no buffalo last time, but orredi developed.
Universe
Moving on to bigger issues surrounding us, recent discovery of relatively small objects revolving around sun have made astronomers think about the existing definition of planets. The aftermath of this discovery has made Pluto a non-planet.
This has however resulted in major discussions world around, with President Bush releasing a statement to international community - "The threat of terrorism has to be faced with courage and we stand united in this hour of need. Al Qaeda has managed to launch attacks on Pluto, severely damaging the size and solar path of Pluto. In consultation with Nasa and international community we have therefore decided to bring down the status of Pluto. These are tough and testing times for our solar system, but I request all Americans to take a white marker and change the text books of your 4th grade kids - Solar system now has 8 planets. I declare."
Astrologers world-over have reacted strongly to this change as well, with some of them claiming the relative superiority of astrology over astronomy. The International Union of Pure and Applied Astrology (IUPAA) in an official statement released "We strongly negate the view of disowning and degrading the status of Pluto in our solar system. Pluto has been a strong contributor to Astrology - whenever the bigger planets don't explain the reality, we have always believed that Pluto accounts for the difference between astrology based predictions and the real world observations. We will therefore continue to believe in the importance of Pluto for the years to come"
Singapore correspondent: Noooooo.... nooooo.... Singapore small country laah, United Nations can declare Singapore part of Malaysia orredi... Can or not? Danger laah, very lucky orredi we been till now.
Stock Market
Let's now move to our analysis of BSE Sensex - Despite higher economic growth projections, lower interest rates, Sensex went down by 4.77% points. The sudden unexpected decline has been attributed to withdrawal of FII money that has been pouring in. It is widely believed that FIIs withdraw money from Indian stock markets on Fridays so as to enjoy the weekend with luxuries ranging from a glass of wine to filling their petrol tanks for weekend trips. This was the conclusion of a very detailed behavioral pattern analysis conducted by MBA students.
Singapore correspondent: We Singaporeans invest in Fixed income only. Money lost in stock market then we cannnnoot get back. Risky lah....
Sports
In a stunning revelation to the international community, ICC president Malcom Speed has come out in open about Darrell Hair's one-time settlement offer to quit ICC's elite panel for $500,000. Further speculations surrounding the issue range from allegations of match fixing to bookies betting on Darrell Hair's future. Defending his stance in international cricket body, Darrell Hair said "I have always played the game in true spirit and my umpiring has been in line with true professional standards. I rate myself as the most committed individual to cricketing world - even Sachin Tendulkar has started to lose focus on cricket - he is probably a bit more inclined towards tennis, now that his elbow has accepted and adapted to tennis"
Singapore correspondent: I don't know lah, cable operator charges $25 per month for cricket channel.
Weather
As we move towards winter, Indian cities have started to experience temperature changes. Delhi was at a minimum of 9 degrees, maximum of 38 degrees, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai oscillating between 12 and 42 degrees. Forecast is of clear skies, except when it is cloudy.
Singapore correspondent: Yesterday my aircon thermostat failed lah, therefore temperature dropped from 24 degrees to 22 degrees in my room. Too cold lah, Singapore very costly, cannot buy blanket also... For weather forecast, we divided Singapore into 26 zones with individual temperate and expected rain fall in the next 24 hours. But no time to tell lah in this short news... I orredi told the news agency that I don't like short news.... last time also cannot...
I was about to blog last weekend - spent good 15 minutes thinking about a topic, didn't manage to get anywhere! So has been the case today, making me question why I actually wanna blog? More so, in this world of open source (and yeah, my google backed blogger follows much the same logic), where I don't incur any cost to maintaining this blog... advertisers to blogspot make sure that burgeoning young bloggers like me don't find the incremental cost as an excuse!
So, back to square one, what do I blog about? Actually lots of stuff happening around, but nothing is worth a full post. Ahhaaaa... idea, a blog that's like a 5 minute interesting news update sounds like a plan... may be not, but more than anything else, gives me something to type without having to think...!!
Here we go: News correspondent Joseph Khanna reporting with our special guest news reader from Singapore
Politics
India' PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh has stated in his secret autobiography that Laloo Prasad Yadav should be made the next PM of India - "He has got Indian Railways to mind boggling overall profit of Rs. 11k crore and his vision would enable India to wipe out poverty, fiscal deficit, get to growth rate of 12% and overtake China by 2016". When asked to elaborate on how Laloo Prasad could get us to 'India Shining', PM Dr. Manmohan Singh said he was in high level discussions with Laloo's think tank Rabri Devi and in her view, the secret path to success would a involve step increase in India's cow and buffalo population - "Laloo kahaith hai ki bhains ka khayal rakhna chahiye... hum kahaith hain ki jitna sasuri bhainsawan ko badhaya jaye , utna desh ka bhala hoi hai"
Singapore correspondent: Cannot lah, Singapore no buffalo last time, but orredi developed.
Universe
Moving on to bigger issues surrounding us, recent discovery of relatively small objects revolving around sun have made astronomers think about the existing definition of planets. The aftermath of this discovery has made Pluto a non-planet.
This has however resulted in major discussions world around, with President Bush releasing a statement to international community - "The threat of terrorism has to be faced with courage and we stand united in this hour of need. Al Qaeda has managed to launch attacks on Pluto, severely damaging the size and solar path of Pluto. In consultation with Nasa and international community we have therefore decided to bring down the status of Pluto. These are tough and testing times for our solar system, but I request all Americans to take a white marker and change the text books of your 4th grade kids - Solar system now has 8 planets. I declare."
Astrologers world-over have reacted strongly to this change as well, with some of them claiming the relative superiority of astrology over astronomy. The International Union of Pure and Applied Astrology (IUPAA) in an official statement released "We strongly negate the view of disowning and degrading the status of Pluto in our solar system. Pluto has been a strong contributor to Astrology - whenever the bigger planets don't explain the reality, we have always believed that Pluto accounts for the difference between astrology based predictions and the real world observations. We will therefore continue to believe in the importance of Pluto for the years to come"
Singapore correspondent: Noooooo.... nooooo.... Singapore small country laah, United Nations can declare Singapore part of Malaysia orredi... Can or not? Danger laah, very lucky orredi we been till now.
Stock Market
Let's now move to our analysis of BSE Sensex - Despite higher economic growth projections, lower interest rates, Sensex went down by 4.77% points. The sudden unexpected decline has been attributed to withdrawal of FII money that has been pouring in. It is widely believed that FIIs withdraw money from Indian stock markets on Fridays so as to enjoy the weekend with luxuries ranging from a glass of wine to filling their petrol tanks for weekend trips. This was the conclusion of a very detailed behavioral pattern analysis conducted by MBA students.
Singapore correspondent: We Singaporeans invest in Fixed income only. Money lost in stock market then we cannnnoot get back. Risky lah....
Sports
In a stunning revelation to the international community, ICC president Malcom Speed has come out in open about Darrell Hair's one-time settlement offer to quit ICC's elite panel for $500,000. Further speculations surrounding the issue range from allegations of match fixing to bookies betting on Darrell Hair's future. Defending his stance in international cricket body, Darrell Hair said "I have always played the game in true spirit and my umpiring has been in line with true professional standards. I rate myself as the most committed individual to cricketing world - even Sachin Tendulkar has started to lose focus on cricket - he is probably a bit more inclined towards tennis, now that his elbow has accepted and adapted to tennis"
Singapore correspondent: I don't know lah, cable operator charges $25 per month for cricket channel.
Weather
As we move towards winter, Indian cities have started to experience temperature changes. Delhi was at a minimum of 9 degrees, maximum of 38 degrees, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai oscillating between 12 and 42 degrees. Forecast is of clear skies, except when it is cloudy.
Singapore correspondent: Yesterday my aircon thermostat failed lah, therefore temperature dropped from 24 degrees to 22 degrees in my room. Too cold lah, Singapore very costly, cannot buy blanket also... For weather forecast, we divided Singapore into 26 zones with individual temperate and expected rain fall in the next 24 hours. But no time to tell lah in this short news... I orredi told the news agency that I don't like short news.... last time also cannot...
Friday, August 11, 2006
Launching "driving and autoworld" blog!
Announcing the launch of a very special blog for all driving and auto world enthusiasts!:
http://autodrivezerocool.blogspot.com/
As the name suggests, the primary objective of the blog is to discuss and document driving tehniques along with the latest in the auto world.
This primary blog, would however continue to be a bit of "post just about anything in here" kinda stuff!
http://autodrivezerocool.blogspot.com/
As the name suggests, the primary objective of the blog is to discuss and document driving tehniques along with the latest in the auto world.
This primary blog, would however continue to be a bit of "post just about anything in here" kinda stuff!
Thursday, July 27, 2006
'Reservation system' - can it ever be reversed?
This post is something about which I have very strong views, but I shall restrict my comments to purely objective statements, as far as possible.
'Reservation' system needs no introduction - be it admission to colleges/univs, jobs, etc, etc, it is something we have learned to live with. The idea behind this 'once upon a time' noble step was to get our caste-based society to some level of equality. In principle, I totally agree with this view and I stand committed to doing my bit to make sure that as a society, we get there.
However, in my view, this now has become a tool to influence vote bank, with little analysis behind what is the 'right level of quota'. Anyways, the objective of this blog is not to criticize, but to find a solution to this issue, given the current situation and constraints acting on the decision makers/society.
My friend, Ranga forwarded this article published on rediff by Prof. T. Pradeep of IIT-Madras:
'Reservation' system needs no introduction - be it admission to colleges/univs, jobs, etc, etc, it is something we have learned to live with. The idea behind this 'once upon a time' noble step was to get our caste-based society to some level of equality. In principle, I totally agree with this view and I stand committed to doing my bit to make sure that as a society, we get there.
However, in my view, this now has become a tool to influence vote bank, with little analysis behind what is the 'right level of quota'. Anyways, the objective of this blog is not to criticize, but to find a solution to this issue, given the current situation and constraints acting on the decision makers/society.
My friend, Ranga forwarded this article published on rediff by Prof. T. Pradeep of IIT-Madras:
Click here to view article
My post is greatly influenced by the article above. I totally agree with the view that ‘one opportunity’ in life is sufficient to make a difference. Prof Pradeep has suggested an IT based solution of providing each individual with unique identification number – this is as close as we can get to being practical about this problem.
Zooming out, lets consider another parallel problem faced by Indian society and economy – that of corruption. But somehow, I think, in the years to come, corruption is not going to matter that much. Two factors make me believe that corruption is not the biggest challenge anymore:
- Privatisation of economy – right from roads, airlines, banks, grocery, etc – influence of public sector in day today life has decreased a lot and this trend is likely to continue in future. So, corruption, in absolute terms might continue to grow, but will mean lesser and lesser for all of us.
- IT – Data based computer systems have reduced complexities and have increased accountability – this has helped reduce corruption as well in government services.
Now, can a similar logic work with ‘reservation system’? Answer would have been ‘yes’ if reservations were restricted to government colleges, government jobs, etc. Unfortunately, the decision makers in this case happen to benefit the most – vote bank counts and matters the most. Even with the most pure and noble intentions, a good party/prime minister has to remain in his position so as to make a difference. One easy way to influence the vote bank is to give incentives, a perfectly logical and correct way to do things in the world of economics and political science.
Given this background, I think, it is difficult to imagine why government at centre would ever take any step to rectify this problem. This is where, I think, 'judiciary' has to step in. Supreme Court has changed a city as big as ‘Delhi’. 5 years back, I used to get dehydrated in Delhi – not ‘coz of the heat, but the pollution used to leave my eyes with constant irritation and tears!! Now, Delhi is so much better – the CNG enforcement, Euro and Bharat Stage norms have changed the city – credit goes to Supreme Court for the way Delhi is today.
The judiciary needs to step in once again. This time, not to give a verdict, but to lay down a policy on reservation – it can be based on Prof. Pradeep’s suggestions of 25 years horizon with one opportunity per person OR Supreme Court can have its own team/ committee to solve this issue. It might take them months to collect data, put forward a view, debate, but all this is worth in larger long term interest of our nation. Till then, I will continue to sign petitions…
Friday, July 14, 2006
The Road Ahead
I am an hour away from starting my drive down to Mumbai. Chennai-Mumbai, a distance of ~1,450 kms, I look to cover in two days with a night halt in Hyderabad.
It's all set, for once I have packed my stuff well in advance! The fuel tank is full, car serviced, maps ghoted/mugged, etc. But there is more to this drive than pure logistics.
It's my first long drive with Swift. There will be a bit of adjustments required before I feel absolutely 'in the zone' on highway. I am just about to getting used to the gear ratios and engine of Swift - a bit of a difference from Santro that I am used to driving on highways. Will probably take me a couple of hours upfront to get it right.
This drive is also important for my long term driving ambitions. In some vague corner of my dreams, I wanna break the current world record of 'around the world in 42 days by road'. That's a lot of driving and I myself know how difficult that ambition is. This drive to Mumbai and back will help me sort this conundrum to some level of comfort.
If I don't get bored and tired of driving 1450 kms in 2 days, that will be like one step towards the world record ambition. Still would remain a distant dream, but yeah, I will probably feel a bit more confident about it.
The other possible outcome is that I might just understand that World Records are World Records and I probably need to practical about things. I might decide to forget the time factor to the record and keep the aim to 'Round the world' - that would still be 40,000 kms approximately. I might get a bit more realistic and get it further down to Asia trip or a notch lower to sub continent trip. I don't think, covering India would ever be an issue. Anyways, I shall revisit my driving ambitions after this trip.
It's almost time for me to get started. I shall keep the long term goals aside and for now, it's one day, one drive. As I always remind myself about any long drive, it's not speed that matters, it's consistency and ability to drive long hours that the differentiating factor. For I know and remember the 'thought for the day' that my teacher made me say in 4th standard morning assembly:
"A journey of thousand miles, begins with a single step..."
It's all set, for once I have packed my stuff well in advance! The fuel tank is full, car serviced, maps ghoted/mugged, etc. But there is more to this drive than pure logistics.
It's my first long drive with Swift. There will be a bit of adjustments required before I feel absolutely 'in the zone' on highway. I am just about to getting used to the gear ratios and engine of Swift - a bit of a difference from Santro that I am used to driving on highways. Will probably take me a couple of hours upfront to get it right.
This drive is also important for my long term driving ambitions. In some vague corner of my dreams, I wanna break the current world record of 'around the world in 42 days by road'. That's a lot of driving and I myself know how difficult that ambition is. This drive to Mumbai and back will help me sort this conundrum to some level of comfort.
If I don't get bored and tired of driving 1450 kms in 2 days, that will be like one step towards the world record ambition. Still would remain a distant dream, but yeah, I will probably feel a bit more confident about it.
The other possible outcome is that I might just understand that World Records are World Records and I probably need to practical about things. I might decide to forget the time factor to the record and keep the aim to 'Round the world' - that would still be 40,000 kms approximately. I might get a bit more realistic and get it further down to Asia trip or a notch lower to sub continent trip. I don't think, covering India would ever be an issue. Anyways, I shall revisit my driving ambitions after this trip.
It's almost time for me to get started. I shall keep the long term goals aside and for now, it's one day, one drive. As I always remind myself about any long drive, it's not speed that matters, it's consistency and ability to drive long hours that the differentiating factor. For I know and remember the 'thought for the day' that my teacher made me say in 4th standard morning assembly:
"A journey of thousand miles, begins with a single step..."
Monday, July 10, 2006
The Unfordriven...
Have been thinking of posting something on this for sometime now. This post is gonna be on diving, rather on drivers - a special dedication to the new Silver Swift :-)
I am a bit out of my creative power (watever!), so will try the old tested technique of 'plagiarism'! This post has been 'inspired' by 'The Unforgiven', by Metallica... here we go:
....
The Unfordriven...
New driver joins this road
and quickly he's subdued
through constant horns disgrace
a young driver learns their rules
with time the driver draws in
these gear shifts have gone wrong
deprived of all his routes
a young driver struggles on and on he's known
a vroooom of his own
that never what they say
try driving the wrong way
what I've braked
what I've steered
never tired of stop and go
never fast
never slow
read what speedometer might show
what I've braked
what I've steered
never tired of stop and go
never 1st
never 5th
so I dub thee unfordriven
cylinders blast their lives
to running all of his
spark plugs fire them all
acceleration is all he needs
throughout his highway drive
he's throttled constantly
this race he cannot win
the better cars out there overtake
the new driver then prepares
to learn it again…
that new driver here is me
what I've braked
what I've steered
never tired of stop and go
never fast
never slow
read what speedometer might show
what I've braked
what I've steered
never tired of stop and go
never 1st
never 5th
so I dub thee unfordriven
For complete version of the original song: click here
I am a bit out of my creative power (watever!), so will try the old tested technique of 'plagiarism'! This post has been 'inspired' by 'The Unforgiven', by Metallica... here we go:
....
The Unfordriven...
New driver joins this road
and quickly he's subdued
through constant horns disgrace
a young driver learns their rules
with time the driver draws in
these gear shifts have gone wrong
deprived of all his routes
a young driver struggles on and on he's known
a vroooom of his own
that never what they say
try driving the wrong way
what I've braked
what I've steered
never tired of stop and go
never fast
never slow
read what speedometer might show
what I've braked
what I've steered
never tired of stop and go
never 1st
never 5th
so I dub thee unfordriven
cylinders blast their lives
to running all of his
spark plugs fire them all
acceleration is all he needs
throughout his highway drive
he's throttled constantly
this race he cannot win
the better cars out there overtake
the new driver then prepares
to learn it again…
that new driver here is me
what I've braked
what I've steered
never tired of stop and go
never fast
never slow
read what speedometer might show
what I've braked
what I've steered
never tired of stop and go
never 1st
never 5th
so I dub thee unfordriven
repeat above
vroom o vroom...
never fast
never slow
so I dub thee unfordriven
you overtook me
I'll overtake you
so I dub thee unfordriven
never 1st
never 5th
so I dub thee unfordriven
you overtook me
I'll overtake you
so I dub thee unfordriven
….
For complete version of the original song: click here
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Strategies to successful... ehhh... career?
At the end of the day, 'Communication', they say is what differentiates good from average, exceptional from just about okay, average from pathetic! The way 'raw facts' or in most cases 'no facts' are 'positioned' can tilt the balance of perception to any of the grades ranging from pathetic to average to good to exceptional!
I am a big believer of 'making this world a better place' and thereby, I wish to make my contribution public today. Please do remember to take a leaf out of this post - trust me, it is useful in every sphere of professional life - for a junior trying to defend his work (or lack of it) at office, someone looking for guidance on presenting to top management or to 'work around' with tough questions from the client! Without any further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, let me present the statements that can make our dull careers successful.
Disclaimer: If you are one of those backed by the relentless desire to be sincere in doing work, then please stay away!! For rest of us, these are very useful statements - in more ways than one, these are 'platform independent' - you can use them in almost any context!
Situation 1: When you have done some work, but it is far from complete
"This piece of analysis is interesting..." take a pause, count 1,2,3 internally and then repeat "it is interesting..." with a nod of head, this time!
"I agree with what Mark has said, my analysis shows similar leading trends..." now, with a look to Mark that conveys "well done mate!"
"I lost all my project files last night. Since then, I have managed to get to this stage of work... I am quick, I know! But the work I had done till yesterday evening had all possible details.. lost it all, Jeeezuz...!"
Situation 2: When you have absolutely no clue to what Mr. Boss is talking about.
"...that, in my view is dot on... I would have guessed the same..."
"...my workstream is so exciting, there are multiple ways of looking at this and I am in process of getting to the answer, looking at different dimensions in a situation that is changing dynamically... let me get back to you by tomorrow afternoon..."
"... the data is inconsistent..."
"I have actually managed to speed up on this... does tomorrow afternoon sound like a plan to discuss this?"
Situation 3: High level client/top management meetings!
"There is a huge potential to create value, unleash synergies and move up the value chain..."
"We did a lot of ground work, this presentation is only to discuss steps that would impact the project most..."
Now, two words that can be like 'wow':
"I think", well it has to be said in a different way "Aaai thiiieenk..." followed by a pause of 3 seconds, look at everyone around and people would react back with "I get that... amazing stuff"
.........
Hope this was useful! Please do experiment and let me know if it works! However, I wish you luck! :-)
I am a big believer of 'making this world a better place' and thereby, I wish to make my contribution public today. Please do remember to take a leaf out of this post - trust me, it is useful in every sphere of professional life - for a junior trying to defend his work (or lack of it) at office, someone looking for guidance on presenting to top management or to 'work around' with tough questions from the client! Without any further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, let me present the statements that can make our dull careers successful.
Disclaimer: If you are one of those backed by the relentless desire to be sincere in doing work, then please stay away!! For rest of us, these are very useful statements - in more ways than one, these are 'platform independent' - you can use them in almost any context!
Situation 1: When you have done some work, but it is far from complete
"This piece of analysis is interesting..." take a pause, count 1,2,3 internally and then repeat "it is interesting..." with a nod of head, this time!
"I agree with what Mark has said, my analysis shows similar leading trends..." now, with a look to Mark that conveys "well done mate!"
"I lost all my project files last night. Since then, I have managed to get to this stage of work... I am quick, I know! But the work I had done till yesterday evening had all possible details.. lost it all, Jeeezuz...!"
Situation 2: When you have absolutely no clue to what Mr. Boss is talking about.
"...that, in my view is dot on... I would have guessed the same..."
"...my workstream is so exciting, there are multiple ways of looking at this and I am in process of getting to the answer, looking at different dimensions in a situation that is changing dynamically... let me get back to you by tomorrow afternoon..."
"... the data is inconsistent..."
"I have actually managed to speed up on this... does tomorrow afternoon sound like a plan to discuss this?"
Situation 3: High level client/top management meetings!
"There is a huge potential to create value, unleash synergies and move up the value chain..."
"We did a lot of ground work, this presentation is only to discuss steps that would impact the project most..."
Now, two words that can be like 'wow':
"I think", well it has to be said in a different way "Aaai thiiieenk..." followed by a pause of 3 seconds, look at everyone around and people would react back with "I get that... amazing stuff"
.........
Hope this was useful! Please do experiment and let me know if it works! However, I wish you luck! :-)
Saturday, July 01, 2006
To ghot or guss?
This post is special, one that I would probably read a few years down the line as well. Last few months have been a bit rough, at most times crazy, but this post is to register this moment, when finally, I think, it has started to get better. Not by any means any big reason to celebrate, but, on incremental basis, may be it's just about getting better.
As I look back at the recent past - last one year or so - there is a bit of learning that I want to pick up before putting it all behind. I will try having a perspective on most things once I am out of this phase of introspection, but there is one thing that comes to my mind as I look at the big picture.
Two extreme words, denoting two ends of thought structure, have started to make equal sense to me. In the past, I have often used these words in a lighter vein, however I am beginning to understand how inter-related these two otherwise polar opposite words are:
Ghot: Originally used for academics, equivalent being 'mug' or simply 'study hard'. In my own lingo, I have used it for any situation that requires some bit of effort and a bit of 'fight'. In cricketing world, ghot is what denotes the way Dravid bats, more so on pitches where it is seaming and bouncing a bit.
Guss: Near synonym of this word is probably "take it easy" and on the extreme side "give up". More importantly, it denotes a bit of attitude, where as an individual, you don't get bogged down by pressure and take it easy.
Exact definition is not as important as the thought and more importantly, a sense of which way to go in pressing circumstances. I have been a big believer of ghot almost all the way through, as there are very strong advantages of being in this mental state:
As I look back at the recent past - last one year or so - there is a bit of learning that I want to pick up before putting it all behind. I will try having a perspective on most things once I am out of this phase of introspection, but there is one thing that comes to my mind as I look at the big picture.
Two extreme words, denoting two ends of thought structure, have started to make equal sense to me. In the past, I have often used these words in a lighter vein, however I am beginning to understand how inter-related these two otherwise polar opposite words are:
Ghot: Originally used for academics, equivalent being 'mug' or simply 'study hard'. In my own lingo, I have used it for any situation that requires some bit of effort and a bit of 'fight'. In cricketing world, ghot is what denotes the way Dravid bats, more so on pitches where it is seaming and bouncing a bit.
Guss: Near synonym of this word is probably "take it easy" and on the extreme side "give up". More importantly, it denotes a bit of attitude, where as an individual, you don't get bogged down by pressure and take it easy.
Exact definition is not as important as the thought and more importantly, a sense of which way to go in pressing circumstances. I have been a big believer of ghot almost all the way through, as there are very strong advantages of being in this mental state:
- Success and effort are positively correlated
- Having tried hard, is sometimes satisfaction enough when results don't meet expectations
On the other hand, the mental state of 'guss' has little upside - to not put in effort when external factors favor oneself is nearly criminal. However, when the pendulum has swung the other way, when suddenly success has lesser relevance than immediate instincts of 'hanging in there', then probably 'guss' is not that bad a choice. It would in many ways help in reducing stress levels and probably in being patient enough for better times.
As I confess, I have in more ways than one, though 'ghot' is the way to go. However, as I look back, I think I have started to appreciate the relative importance of 'guss'. Being in a state of 'guss', might have helped me to look at things in a better way, see the lighter side to things probably and that would have made a tough phase rather smooth.
So, is a complete shift required? I look to answer this in the time to come. However, my guess is not. Probably, I need to continue with 'ghot', but make sure that at the back of my mind, I know that 'guss' is probably a way to look at things when the things get tough - if not for long duration of time, atleast short time span spent in state of 'guss' might just help to relax and get the composure back. It's so much about having an option that is like:
If externalities > threshold of being good, then 'ghot', else 'guss' for sometime and ghot again!
However, I continue to look for a better solution to this riddle... for now, gusssss... as I get back to the song I have been listening all day - "It's been a while" by Staind
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
ennapa?... walking down the memory road...
A bit of a flash back - this post is dedicated to all my school friends and to profs and teachers who over the years have made this post a possibility!
Oct 1995 - I reached Chennai and joined DAV Gopalapuram - the admission process was a bit of a challenge. It's never easy to get to a school in October, however, with help of a few contacts, could get an appointment with the principal. I was initially declined admission as princi observed that all my 8th standard marks were in '40s'!! It took a bit of explanation to get the message that well, in my school in Kerala, for some strange reason, overall marks were on 50. Anyways, with some luck, I could get admission to DAV, Gopalapuram. Otherwise would have been lucky enough to discontinue my education then.
Strange it was - to be in middle of a year, in a new environment, new people, new teachers - I was a bit perplexed. It was however my 9th educational institution in 9th standard!!! The history till then had just been perfect!!! - The first school that I went to in Lucknow - pre-nursery or so - closed down within a week, the next one lasted a month!! Finally spent more than a year in my 3rd school and then we shifted to Rajkot. Spent 3 years in one school there! School 5 was a 2 year stint in DAV Public, Patna. School 6 was Shivagiri Vidyaniketan in Alwaye, near Cochin in Kerala. Spent good 2 years in that school before shifting to School 7 - Vidyodaya, near Cochin again, for a year. We then moved to Mumbai for sometime, School 8 was Rajhans, Andheri - lasted 6 months there! School 9 was DAV - 3.5 years!!! Ever since, life got a bit more stable - spent 4 years at BITS and 2 years at IIM-A. It took combined effort of 11 educational institutions to teach me something!
Back to 9A, DAV, Gopalapuram - As new as I was then and despite being in a habit of changing schools so often, I still do take a bit of a time to make friends, more so the case then. So, for sometime, I remained the silent boy of the class! - a bit of an extreme deviation given my track record ever since! Before moving on to the teachers and profs., I will first share a very funny experience - I can't stop laughing about it even now.
The class leader of IXA then was Kutral - My first impression was - how is this guy the class leader?! 'coz to me, he did seem to be the naughty-est of the lot! In the first week, there was once a time when some teacher was absent and we had like the entire 40 mins to have fun - okay correction, they had 40 mins to have fun! Being new to the class, there had to be a bit of ragging. So, someone - now I don't remember who, probably Bhatia - told me - "you know our class leader?"... I was like 'Yeah... yess... he is the leader, right?'... Bhatia said "He is also the world record holder for swimming"... I was like.. "Yeah right, tell me about it!" I spent the next 10 mins defending "I might look dumb with these 0.5 power spects on, but I know all tricks of the trade. So, don't gimme this crap"! The discussion went on, almost the enitre class joined in! And Kutral was like - "They are just having fun with you, don't fall in the trap" - For all they told me, I was like "Yeah right... English channel... thats so so cold... I am not that dumb!!"...
Well, as it turned out to be, Kutral was and is the world record holder - for being the youngest swimmer to cross the English Channel and thereafter, my guess is that he managed another world record - "youngest to appear on every television channel as well!"... Funny incident, I still can't stop laughing... but it is all ways is a tribute to Kutral - not just for his achievements, but also for being so modest ab't it - never did he have that air of 'world record holder' around him and even till today, he remains a simple but naughty guy!
Then came the second experience - this was however over a period of time. I observed that most in our class, didn't speak the way they would to the external world! - and I didn't follow anything that they said - apparently it was all Ta Ta Va lingo! "Maditashan... (meditation) was the every second word used in the class then. The interesting fact that still remains is that I never got a chance to sit through a TTV class, but I can still imagine what the class would be like!
Days and months went by, I got more and more used to being with my to-be friends. For most of 9th, I did remain a silent guy - made a couple of friends, but my social studies marks left me with enough in life to worry about. Laloo, our Social Studies teacher was a bit more worried than I was!! To me, the idea was simple - somehow pass 9th standard - I did manage a 59/100 in my final exam of Social Studies, trust me, I was happy with that!! Little did I know that the minimum cut off to be eligible for National Scholorship Exams is atleast 60 is all subjects in 9th!
Life moved on, as I felt more and more at home in this new school, I started with my PJs - the first few days were rocking cool! Everyone enjoyed my PJs - some like Genish didn't follow much!! :-)) Others like Anta, took 2 weeks to understand! However, if an when, he understood, I did have a terrible time the very next break. Short break, Lunch break and 2:55pm break - Anta used to either solve some JEE high fundoo sums or beat me up - with a rather strange configuration - he was a master at hitting with his elbow!!
10th went by, the fun factor in life was still not there that much. However, a year later, I took ED/science group in 11th and the entire class changed. Many of my friends went to 11C, while junta joined 11A. This is when the real fun started. By some strange voluntary suicide scheme, I was the class leader too! However, I was now a chill back bencher. Actually not entirely, I was back-bench minus one, but in the left most column of the class - ideal place, much better than the back benchers in the middle columns (okay, we used to call it row then). And we did have fun! Starting from "my dear boooyz", Kandy our physics + class teacher, to our introduction to ED sir... little did I know, that this would change my lingo for life... even today, when we exchange scraps on orkut, it's often ED lingo "waffor doi litis means temmnow" "bufffalllo" "Good fameley or bad fameley litat" "wat i cen able cho chell u is litat" "pumbock"... and it goes on and on and on... I will leave the exact imitation to Lakhsman's blog - nut thinks I am 'the worrrrshhht' at this! :-((
There is tons to write about Minizaa, but I shall for now keep it to imitation only - I am sure, others have expressed their crushes on her, and since I was not part of that gang (!!!), I shall not blog on the crush part! Pullezzaaa, Anantaramanzaa do the sumzaa... Pullleezzaaa.
Jokes apart, any post on school is half empty without a sincere thanks to Sridhar Sir. We all respect him a lot - apart from the fundaes we got in Chemistry, Sridhar Sir has always been a friend to us. And more so in my case, fun time apart, it was not easy going for me in 11th and much of 12th - it's not easy to keep aims and hopes high when one is scoring significantly below the rest, but in our 1-to-1 sessions, Sridhar Sir always expressed confidence in me, gave me a few tips and that has helped me a lot.
Saitsh, the princi was a masterpiece! 'pooowerful speaker', etc, etc... again, its pure imitation, so shall leave it for other blogs :-) However, till date, the biggest united mischief was 'Paul'! It was an event that took the scales of 'Quit India Movement'. Hundreds and Thousands joined in this noble cause and we went about spreading the message of "One world, One word, One mischief, One tone, One Aim". Paul, an otherwise sane human being, far away from the mischief gang of the class, was blessed with a name, which when 'extruded' out of Kandy's throat sounded like 'Puuoo'!
It was during one of the 11th standard classes that NK started off with 'Paul'... just a hint. There was not much of a reaction to this. He said once more, and now another specimen shouted 'Paul'... it still did sound innocent. A day or two later, we started to 'spread the word'. All that was needed now, was mention of 'Paul' and half of the class would shout 'Paaaul' ' Paaaooo', 'Pol', 'Ppppoooulll'. First couple of times, teachers didn't get it. Atleast innocent Jaya didn't for sure. We now tried it everywhere, from Physics lab to ED room to every other class to Jam's class - and slowly we got to the 'expert status' in this. It was like having a massive stereo system installed, with each speaker distinct - all it needed was a small mention of 'Paul' and the system would go crazy! We even tried it once in Sridhar Sir's class!! Sir was quick to pick it and he said 'boys, comeon'!!!
Something that took the scale of Quit India Movement, wouldn't have been restricted to our class. It went on to other sections of 11th in our school, slowly our juniors and seniors bought this idea! And since we were a decent mass in IIT classes, we did it once before a Govi class. It spread like wild fire there - easy when you have 150 students sitting in a class that should take no more than 40. 'Paul' was now a brand, it was a religion that we followed, it was an 'expression', it was an 'attitude to life'. From IIT class, it spread to other schools like PSBB, I am told. Those guys knew nothing about who Paul is!! So, all of you who have had the patience to read this post till here, say 'Paaaul'!! My friend Paul, you have some popularity index man!
Moving now to IIT classes - we first started with imitating Govi - for his jokes ranged from neighbour's daughter to Bangalore babes! I haven't kept a track of all Govi wise cracks, but was fun! Atleast, I did feel a bit of competition! Then, we imitated Santhanam '...if you don't get the moles right, you misss the bussss' - the last 3 words spoken at the speed of light! Anandan was our fav as well, but I am actually bad at imitating him. So, will leave it for other blogs.
However, the biggest influence on my vocal life and I trust so is the case with many others, is TRS - Great prof for sure, but apart from that, he had the most 's' lingo on this planet earth! 'ennapa, this gets cancels', that sounded like 'ennnaaapa, this getzz canczcels' followed with a sweep of hand with his '1st finger floating'!
Before going on to other famous TRS lines, it was fun seeing him before the class started. He would rub the board with the duster to perfection - with not even a small spec of chal powder left! Then he would pick a piece of chalk, break it and use the last one-third piece of the chalk. He would stand still next to the blackboard facing the board and with a chalk in his hand, almost about to start writing. He would give himself a minute or so. To me, that sight was so so funny - it was as if a computer was booting standing still - those days, I had a 166Mhz at home, so was almost the same speed!
Back to TRS words of wisdom - "Zit on the zitter"... ennnapa plz... che che chek chek... "ennapa Aatraya Vaidyanathan, am I daaaaaancing here" :-))) "A goezzs to B's placzze, B goezzs to C's placzze, ennapaa"... and then for students like me, who were not doing too well to get through JEE, he used to call us "Caat onn the waaooll caze"!!!! "gets cancels..."
This has been a bit of a flash back! School days were fun, college life was equally cool... back to present times, it's still much the same. Till the next post, "ennnapa, plz..." blogging "getzzs cancelzzs"!!
Oct 1995 - I reached Chennai and joined DAV Gopalapuram - the admission process was a bit of a challenge. It's never easy to get to a school in October, however, with help of a few contacts, could get an appointment with the principal. I was initially declined admission as princi observed that all my 8th standard marks were in '40s'!! It took a bit of explanation to get the message that well, in my school in Kerala, for some strange reason, overall marks were on 50. Anyways, with some luck, I could get admission to DAV, Gopalapuram. Otherwise would have been lucky enough to discontinue my education then.
Strange it was - to be in middle of a year, in a new environment, new people, new teachers - I was a bit perplexed. It was however my 9th educational institution in 9th standard!!! The history till then had just been perfect!!! - The first school that I went to in Lucknow - pre-nursery or so - closed down within a week, the next one lasted a month!! Finally spent more than a year in my 3rd school and then we shifted to Rajkot. Spent 3 years in one school there! School 5 was a 2 year stint in DAV Public, Patna. School 6 was Shivagiri Vidyaniketan in Alwaye, near Cochin in Kerala. Spent good 2 years in that school before shifting to School 7 - Vidyodaya, near Cochin again, for a year. We then moved to Mumbai for sometime, School 8 was Rajhans, Andheri - lasted 6 months there! School 9 was DAV - 3.5 years!!! Ever since, life got a bit more stable - spent 4 years at BITS and 2 years at IIM-A. It took combined effort of 11 educational institutions to teach me something!
Back to 9A, DAV, Gopalapuram - As new as I was then and despite being in a habit of changing schools so often, I still do take a bit of a time to make friends, more so the case then. So, for sometime, I remained the silent boy of the class! - a bit of an extreme deviation given my track record ever since! Before moving on to the teachers and profs., I will first share a very funny experience - I can't stop laughing about it even now.
The class leader of IXA then was Kutral - My first impression was - how is this guy the class leader?! 'coz to me, he did seem to be the naughty-est of the lot! In the first week, there was once a time when some teacher was absent and we had like the entire 40 mins to have fun - okay correction, they had 40 mins to have fun! Being new to the class, there had to be a bit of ragging. So, someone - now I don't remember who, probably Bhatia - told me - "you know our class leader?"... I was like 'Yeah... yess... he is the leader, right?'... Bhatia said "He is also the world record holder for swimming"... I was like.. "Yeah right, tell me about it!" I spent the next 10 mins defending "I might look dumb with these 0.5 power spects on, but I know all tricks of the trade. So, don't gimme this crap"! The discussion went on, almost the enitre class joined in! And Kutral was like - "They are just having fun with you, don't fall in the trap" - For all they told me, I was like "Yeah right... English channel... thats so so cold... I am not that dumb!!"...
Well, as it turned out to be, Kutral was and is the world record holder - for being the youngest swimmer to cross the English Channel and thereafter, my guess is that he managed another world record - "youngest to appear on every television channel as well!"... Funny incident, I still can't stop laughing... but it is all ways is a tribute to Kutral - not just for his achievements, but also for being so modest ab't it - never did he have that air of 'world record holder' around him and even till today, he remains a simple but naughty guy!
Then came the second experience - this was however over a period of time. I observed that most in our class, didn't speak the way they would to the external world! - and I didn't follow anything that they said - apparently it was all Ta Ta Va lingo! "Maditashan... (meditation) was the every second word used in the class then. The interesting fact that still remains is that I never got a chance to sit through a TTV class, but I can still imagine what the class would be like!
Days and months went by, I got more and more used to being with my to-be friends. For most of 9th, I did remain a silent guy - made a couple of friends, but my social studies marks left me with enough in life to worry about. Laloo, our Social Studies teacher was a bit more worried than I was!! To me, the idea was simple - somehow pass 9th standard - I did manage a 59/100 in my final exam of Social Studies, trust me, I was happy with that!! Little did I know that the minimum cut off to be eligible for National Scholorship Exams is atleast 60 is all subjects in 9th!
Life moved on, as I felt more and more at home in this new school, I started with my PJs - the first few days were rocking cool! Everyone enjoyed my PJs - some like Genish didn't follow much!! :-)) Others like Anta, took 2 weeks to understand! However, if an when, he understood, I did have a terrible time the very next break. Short break, Lunch break and 2:55pm break - Anta used to either solve some JEE high fundoo sums or beat me up - with a rather strange configuration - he was a master at hitting with his elbow!!
10th went by, the fun factor in life was still not there that much. However, a year later, I took ED/science group in 11th and the entire class changed. Many of my friends went to 11C, while junta joined 11A. This is when the real fun started. By some strange voluntary suicide scheme, I was the class leader too! However, I was now a chill back bencher. Actually not entirely, I was back-bench minus one, but in the left most column of the class - ideal place, much better than the back benchers in the middle columns (okay, we used to call it row then). And we did have fun! Starting from "my dear boooyz", Kandy our physics + class teacher, to our introduction to ED sir... little did I know, that this would change my lingo for life... even today, when we exchange scraps on orkut, it's often ED lingo "waffor doi litis means temmnow" "bufffalllo" "Good fameley or bad fameley litat" "wat i cen able cho chell u is litat" "pumbock"... and it goes on and on and on... I will leave the exact imitation to Lakhsman's blog - nut thinks I am 'the worrrrshhht' at this! :-((
There is tons to write about Minizaa, but I shall for now keep it to imitation only - I am sure, others have expressed their crushes on her, and since I was not part of that gang (!!!), I shall not blog on the crush part! Pullezzaaa, Anantaramanzaa do the sumzaa... Pullleezzaaa.
Jokes apart, any post on school is half empty without a sincere thanks to Sridhar Sir. We all respect him a lot - apart from the fundaes we got in Chemistry, Sridhar Sir has always been a friend to us. And more so in my case, fun time apart, it was not easy going for me in 11th and much of 12th - it's not easy to keep aims and hopes high when one is scoring significantly below the rest, but in our 1-to-1 sessions, Sridhar Sir always expressed confidence in me, gave me a few tips and that has helped me a lot.
Saitsh, the princi was a masterpiece! 'pooowerful speaker', etc, etc... again, its pure imitation, so shall leave it for other blogs :-) However, till date, the biggest united mischief was 'Paul'! It was an event that took the scales of 'Quit India Movement'. Hundreds and Thousands joined in this noble cause and we went about spreading the message of "One world, One word, One mischief, One tone, One Aim". Paul, an otherwise sane human being, far away from the mischief gang of the class, was blessed with a name, which when 'extruded' out of Kandy's throat sounded like 'Puuoo'!
It was during one of the 11th standard classes that NK started off with 'Paul'... just a hint. There was not much of a reaction to this. He said once more, and now another specimen shouted 'Paul'... it still did sound innocent. A day or two later, we started to 'spread the word'. All that was needed now, was mention of 'Paul' and half of the class would shout 'Paaaul' ' Paaaooo', 'Pol', 'Ppppoooulll'. First couple of times, teachers didn't get it. Atleast innocent Jaya didn't for sure. We now tried it everywhere, from Physics lab to ED room to every other class to Jam's class - and slowly we got to the 'expert status' in this. It was like having a massive stereo system installed, with each speaker distinct - all it needed was a small mention of 'Paul' and the system would go crazy! We even tried it once in Sridhar Sir's class!! Sir was quick to pick it and he said 'boys, comeon'!!!
Something that took the scale of Quit India Movement, wouldn't have been restricted to our class. It went on to other sections of 11th in our school, slowly our juniors and seniors bought this idea! And since we were a decent mass in IIT classes, we did it once before a Govi class. It spread like wild fire there - easy when you have 150 students sitting in a class that should take no more than 40. 'Paul' was now a brand, it was a religion that we followed, it was an 'expression', it was an 'attitude to life'. From IIT class, it spread to other schools like PSBB, I am told. Those guys knew nothing about who Paul is!! So, all of you who have had the patience to read this post till here, say 'Paaaul'!! My friend Paul, you have some popularity index man!
Moving now to IIT classes - we first started with imitating Govi - for his jokes ranged from neighbour's daughter to Bangalore babes! I haven't kept a track of all Govi wise cracks, but was fun! Atleast, I did feel a bit of competition! Then, we imitated Santhanam '...if you don't get the moles right, you misss the bussss' - the last 3 words spoken at the speed of light! Anandan was our fav as well, but I am actually bad at imitating him. So, will leave it for other blogs.
However, the biggest influence on my vocal life and I trust so is the case with many others, is TRS - Great prof for sure, but apart from that, he had the most 's' lingo on this planet earth! 'ennapa, this gets cancels', that sounded like 'ennnaaapa, this getzz canczcels' followed with a sweep of hand with his '1st finger floating'!
Before going on to other famous TRS lines, it was fun seeing him before the class started. He would rub the board with the duster to perfection - with not even a small spec of chal powder left! Then he would pick a piece of chalk, break it and use the last one-third piece of the chalk. He would stand still next to the blackboard facing the board and with a chalk in his hand, almost about to start writing. He would give himself a minute or so. To me, that sight was so so funny - it was as if a computer was booting standing still - those days, I had a 166Mhz at home, so was almost the same speed!
Back to TRS words of wisdom - "Zit on the zitter"... ennnapa plz... che che chek chek... "ennapa Aatraya Vaidyanathan, am I daaaaaancing here" :-))) "A goezzs to B's placzze, B goezzs to C's placzze, ennapaa"... and then for students like me, who were not doing too well to get through JEE, he used to call us "Caat onn the waaooll caze"!!!! "gets cancels..."
This has been a bit of a flash back! School days were fun, college life was equally cool... back to present times, it's still much the same. Till the next post, "ennnapa, plz..." blogging "getzzs cancelzzs"!!
Thursday, June 22, 2006
How right is right?
This post deviates a bit from funny and auto world posts that my blog otherwise is full of. I was reading through the blog of my friend Maharaj and read something on religion and stuff and I was impressed. This post has nothing to do with that, but that did motivate me to put in words something about which I have been thinking for sometime now.
A disclaimer before I go ahead - this is nothing more than just a thought. The real world might appear to be far from this, but nevertheless, it's just another way to look at things.
I have sometimes looked at statements like "Country X is a highly cultured country" and wondered does it mean that rest of the world is not cultured? I thought about many ways of defining culture, but finally bought the one that wikipedia says - "theoretical bases for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity" - in a very broad way, it is the value system of population in general. Now, the definition of culture is not that important to rest of thoughts I have in here.
Let me start with an example. I went on a short 10 day training trip to US in Oct. 2005. As excited I was about being first time in US, I was a bit perplexed as well. Right from immigration counter to taxi to people in general whom I met, appeared to be a fraction arrogant to me. My immediate conclusion was Americans are arrogant and highly extrovert! - based purely on the following observations: 1) People spoke in a tone not considered 'courteous' in India 2) The language used was direct as opposed to some inherent 'respect' that is possibly found in India 3) People communicate every possible feeling and they go on and on and on! Too extrovert for my liking!
Yeah, having seen this, the easy immediate conclusion I could draw was people in general are arrogant and extrovert!
Days passed by, I actually didn't think about it while at training. On my return journey, I had good 20 hours on flight and I was running through the entire experience. And I again said, well it was nice being here, but I found people arrogant and extrovert.
But is that really true? Or is it all my perception? Since then, I have been trying to solve this conundrum and have had little success at this. The interesting aspect comes in when I think 'who would my American friends call arrogant and extrovert?' - That then got me thinking that probably people there too would have this relative comparison among themselves? So, are all these things relative? Or is there an absolute measure to this? Stretching the argument a bit further, is there an absolute good or bad? Or what is good in one society would be totally bad in the other? And if this is true, what is the driving factor to all this?
By no way, have I understood this to any level of comfort, but my take on this is:
A disclaimer before I go ahead - this is nothing more than just a thought. The real world might appear to be far from this, but nevertheless, it's just another way to look at things.
I have sometimes looked at statements like "Country X is a highly cultured country" and wondered does it mean that rest of the world is not cultured? I thought about many ways of defining culture, but finally bought the one that wikipedia says - "theoretical bases for understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity" - in a very broad way, it is the value system of population in general. Now, the definition of culture is not that important to rest of thoughts I have in here.
Let me start with an example. I went on a short 10 day training trip to US in Oct. 2005. As excited I was about being first time in US, I was a bit perplexed as well. Right from immigration counter to taxi to people in general whom I met, appeared to be a fraction arrogant to me. My immediate conclusion was Americans are arrogant and highly extrovert! - based purely on the following observations: 1) People spoke in a tone not considered 'courteous' in India 2) The language used was direct as opposed to some inherent 'respect' that is possibly found in India 3) People communicate every possible feeling and they go on and on and on! Too extrovert for my liking!
Yeah, having seen this, the easy immediate conclusion I could draw was people in general are arrogant and extrovert!
Days passed by, I actually didn't think about it while at training. On my return journey, I had good 20 hours on flight and I was running through the entire experience. And I again said, well it was nice being here, but I found people arrogant and extrovert.
But is that really true? Or is it all my perception? Since then, I have been trying to solve this conundrum and have had little success at this. The interesting aspect comes in when I think 'who would my American friends call arrogant and extrovert?' - That then got me thinking that probably people there too would have this relative comparison among themselves? So, are all these things relative? Or is there an absolute measure to this? Stretching the argument a bit further, is there an absolute good or bad? Or what is good in one society would be totally bad in the other? And if this is true, what is the driving factor to all this?
By no way, have I understood this to any level of comfort, but my take on this is:
- Our 'perception' and 'judgement' of 'good' vs. 'bad' is probably based on the way we look at the world
- The way we look the world is driven a lot by what we consider as the values that we stand by
- Our core values are a direct function of the way we have seen things around us and in some ways what we therefore accept as good or bad based on repeated experiences
- Now this is where culture steps in - or in very simple terms, the values, beliefs and representative common thoughts of entire population.
- The implication is that 'culture' in one part of the world could be totally different from 'culture' in another part - driven by circumstances, history and a bit based on how leaders and heroes of the land have lived.
Well, this is some ways helped me answer why I thought my American friends were arrogant. I am a big believer of 'law of large numbers' - in a qualitative way though - and the version that I present is that 'given all factors equal one large sample of population should be exactly identical to the other large sample'
However this doesn't seem to be true with my experience - so should I possibly visit again and meet a lot more people? I can, but my guess is that I will come back with a similar conclusion. And this is where the first part of the law steps in - 'given all factors equal'.
To me this is what defines culture. The way we think, our beliefs, our sense of right and wrong is possibly driven by 'culture' or 'cumulative experience of the society that we live in'
Ofcourse, as individuals, we are all different. And these observations are nothing but deviation from the mean or trend in any sample. Qualitative statements somehow don't convey the meaning in an appropriate way. Let me get put in a bit of flavour with some numbers being pumped in.
Let's take "Good" Vs. "Bad" and see how to apply it numerically on different cultures. I can't seem to think of a decent example... hmmm... okay, recently there was a survey conducted by Readers Digest in which Mumbai was rated the 'rudest' city in the world (http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jun/20mum.htm). Interestingly enough, one of the 3 factors taken into consideration was - how often shop assistants said 'thankyou'. I am not trying to defend Mumbai or India here, but one clear obvious reason is that in India, saying 'thankyou' is not considered a must - there are other ways in which courtesy is recognised, while cities that ranked high probably did have the general 'culture' of saying thankyou.
Now let us say that out of 10 observation points, people in Mumabi said 'Thanks' 3 times while in the 'city A' that topped the list on an average out of 10 observations was say, '8 times'.
So a person in Mumbai who never says thanks is considered rude, may be. Someone who says 'thanks' 3 out of 10 times is average and someone who says it 5 times on 10, is like 'wow! there comes Mr. or Ms. Courteous'
In 'City A', someone who says 'thanks' 6 times on 10 is like considered 'rude', 8 is average and 10 is the 'Mr. or Ms. Courteous'
Now our Mr. or Ms. Courteous from Mumbai happens to visit 'City A'. What reaction would he face there? With 5 thanks every 10 times, he or she would have been 'amazing' here in Mumbai but would be considered 'rude' in City B!
I believe, this is true across every dimension of human behaviour and values. To stretch it further, in some ways the basic sense of 'right' and 'wrong' can also differ on 'culture' that we have imbibed. Well, the implications resulting from this, in my view, are:
- 'Right' or 'Wrong' is a subjective issue - it depends a lot on the world we have seen around us
- The above difference in perception can result in conflicts between individuals from different cultures or backgrounds
- It is therefore important to adjust for these 'cultural shocks' while dealing with different people
- The challenge is in doing these adjustments 'dynamically' while interacting with different individuals - would be very tough to implement, 'coz in a split second, we need to consider the world and view of the other person and then respond accordingly.
However, there is a flip side to this. It in some ways implies that we should accept anything and everything? How do we distinguish between the 'perceived bad' from 'absolute bad' is a major challenge that I have been thinking about for sometime. I would welcome and appreciate comments, suggestions and thoughts on this. Please reply to this post or mail me with your views.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Vrooooom.... test driving the B segment!
This post is gonna be a bit different - well, actually, it's inherently different, not because blogspot helped me with addition of maggi hot and sweet tomato chilly sauce to this post! - It's about test drives of a couple of cars - essentially based on 5-10 minutes of test drive and nothing more. Infact, I am told, Auto India recently did come up with an edition with test drives. I will probably read that up once I am done with this post - to cross check how true Auto India is :-))
Indian automobile market has changed a lot over the years. It started with automobile industry being made open to MNCs - pre-IT boom days (pre-Y2K), auto boom was the only thing that went on positive side of analysis of Indian industry. Things have changed since then. The result is a wide range of models to choose from and the satisfaction that Indian models are launched in parallel with worldwide launch - sign of things to come for our country that aims to become a global small car manufacturing hub.
We were looking to change the Santro, so were essentially looking for a replacement in almost the same segment. Santro has done wonderfully well over the last 6.5 years, however seems to lack the punch on new highways. Although the car would mostly be driven in city, I thought that the new car should probably be a fraction better on highways. So, before I got down to test drives, understanding specs on the ground, talking to dealers, in some ways, the choice was narrowed down to Swift, Getz on one side vs. Santro and Indica on the other. Santro I have driven a lot, have tried the 1.1L version too, so in some ways knew enough about the car.
The first car that I test drove was Hyundai Getz. Internally, it looked impressive, though externally, I am yet to find any major distinguishing element in Getz - was just about okay in terms of looks. It felt like Santro - yeah yeah I know there is a light year of difference, but that's what my initial reaction was. However, as I slipped into the driver's seat, the impression started to change. The engine start was smooth and the gear shift to first was impressive - the gears were real smooth. The real difference was when I managed to get some acceleration going - it was quick! - relative statistics of 0-60 pickup would prove that, but it was real impressive. The engine was very smooth and easy! Driving the car was a pleasure, smooth gear shifts, a highly responsive engine that didn't crib with any high decibel sounds did sound perfect. Road handling was decent. I for one, did not find suspensions to be any better than Santro - though the dealer did tell that there it is supposed to be superior. Space inside was just about okay. Overall verdict - Santro + great engine, great gear shift. However, I thought it was an over priced car and at some stage Hyundai will need to cut prices to compete with Swift and friends.
I did take a round of new Santro - had driven new Santro before, so knew exactly how it would be. The 1.1L engine provides sufficient power, the suspension system felt almost the same. There was not much to know further about Santro, so I kept the observations down to minimum basic - and it therefore takes a smaller proportion of this post! There is one comment that I need to make - 7-8 years in India and I am still not sure if Hyundai has ironed out the air-conditioning system. Getz and Santro didn't feel at any stage sufficiently in tune with cooling requirements in India, more so in Chennai. Its probably a trade off with fuel efficiency, but driving comfort is a lot dependent on the effectiveness of the air con and being a Hyundai fan, I would like to see that corrected at some point in time.
Now over to the next car - the car that I had in some ways decided to go ahead with. It's Maruti Sukuzi Swift. Everything about the car looked perfect till then. The sports shape of the car is obviously a big big plus. In addition to that, it looks overall neat, with certain special design elements that had made Swift the car of the year internationally - launched in India almost in parallel with it's global launch, Swift based on all reviews was the car here to stay for sometime. I have been impressed with other factors that have gone in branding of the car - the fully devoted marutiswift website was a great place to get a perfect overview to the car and the relative comparison of different models. With VX model priced at 4.8L, Maruti, I think has positioned the car perfectly well in India.
With this background, I started the test drive of the car. The interiors of the car looked just right with more than sufficient leg room and head room - did feel a bigger car than Santro and Getz - I might be wrong here, as this perception is based on the design whereas actual dimensions sometimes work out to be different. Into gear 1 and the car did have some pick-up! That was impressive, really was! I am inherently a low rpm driver, but didn't mind pressing the throttle on this car. I was test driving the top end model of the car with automatic climate control - the air conditioning did look very effective and the ride comfort was good. I will look at the stats at some stage, but I think Swift is a bit heavier than Getz. I would feel that as it did glide through the potholes and the suspension response was reasonably good. However, I was not entirely convinced on two factors: 1) The engine smoothness - didn't feel that smooth as the Getz that I test drove 2) In-cabin sound level. Again, this finally comes down to refinement and build quality. This is what my top of the mind judgement was, however reality could be a bit different - it all depends on how old the demo cars where - the dealer told me that it was 6 months old, with every day some auto freak like me trying to push the car to it's limits! Overall I was more of less satisfied with the car. At same price point, would have chosen Swift over Getz for superior design, though engine ride was a fraction better with Getz. However, with the corresponding model of Getz being a good 40K more than Swift, there was hardly any decision to be made here.
This was day 1 of test drives - infact day half to be exact as I spent the first half of the day in travel to Chennai. By evening, I was much convinced that it is Swift. The plan for day-2 was to reach some level of comfort with the car, may be test drive once more and then look to hunt for the dealer that could give maximum discount.
Day-2, I take my Santro out with a list of all Maruti dealers in town - to get the best possible deal. On the way, I happened to visit Tata motors showroom. I wanted to have some understanding of Indica and a bit of Indigo. Actually, I haven't kept pace with changes in Indica since it's early days. Those were times when I used to follow Indica very closely - as it was one car developed from scratch in India and I felt proud that it was just about there in terms of product features and quality with the international competition. Way back in 2001 or 2002, I had gone to Delhi for Auto Expo from Bits with a couple of car crazy friends. We did see Indica v2 and another variant then and it did sound impressive. Now, Indica had changed - the new version XETA was like 'wow'. At 3.6L for the fully loaded version, it was attractive. I took a test drive and the 1.4L engine felt a bit better than Santro. After the test drive, I could suddenly see the price difference between Indica and Swift and the impressive XETA was almost there at the top in my books. However, 2 factors again went against this. 1) Indica till now has a lower resale value - probably due to build quality of earlier models 2) It is somehow associated with taxis, as Indicab has been a huge success.
Confused as I was, thought it was best to visit a Swift dealer again. I test drove Swift again, the 87bhp power, the sports car design and the stamp of international car of the year were reasons enough to pay the premium over Indica. So, it was SWIFT again - now it was down to getting the colours, etc right. Swift comes in with some real cool colours! - I actually like the black Swift as much as the other variants like silver, blue, dark grey, etc. One special feature in Swift that enhances the sports car image is the black A and B columns (or is it B and columns?) - well these are actually the metal panels that front doors close to - this black did go so well with silver that it made the decision a lot easier for us.
Rest of the time in Chennai, I spent on the process part - negotiating with the dealer, booking the car, dealing with finance companies to get the best EMI per lakh, etc, etc. Next morning (day-3), I went to the accessory showroom to get a few extra fittings. I am actually not a big fan of accessories - i so much like the original look of the car and like to preserve it for as long as possible - to the extent that I am a bit against the concept of sun films in cars - I like the original marginally tinted glasses that cars come in with. However, I wanted to fit the SWIFT with a music system that would be in line with the engine power!
SWIFT, as per estimates, should be delivered tomorrow. I am in Singapore now, so will probably have to wait a while before I can get behind the wheels of the new car. A long drive is surely on cards next time I get an opportunity!
Indian automobile market has changed a lot over the years. It started with automobile industry being made open to MNCs - pre-IT boom days (pre-Y2K), auto boom was the only thing that went on positive side of analysis of Indian industry. Things have changed since then. The result is a wide range of models to choose from and the satisfaction that Indian models are launched in parallel with worldwide launch - sign of things to come for our country that aims to become a global small car manufacturing hub.
We were looking to change the Santro, so were essentially looking for a replacement in almost the same segment. Santro has done wonderfully well over the last 6.5 years, however seems to lack the punch on new highways. Although the car would mostly be driven in city, I thought that the new car should probably be a fraction better on highways. So, before I got down to test drives, understanding specs on the ground, talking to dealers, in some ways, the choice was narrowed down to Swift, Getz on one side vs. Santro and Indica on the other. Santro I have driven a lot, have tried the 1.1L version too, so in some ways knew enough about the car.
The first car that I test drove was Hyundai Getz. Internally, it looked impressive, though externally, I am yet to find any major distinguishing element in Getz - was just about okay in terms of looks. It felt like Santro - yeah yeah I know there is a light year of difference, but that's what my initial reaction was. However, as I slipped into the driver's seat, the impression started to change. The engine start was smooth and the gear shift to first was impressive - the gears were real smooth. The real difference was when I managed to get some acceleration going - it was quick! - relative statistics of 0-60 pickup would prove that, but it was real impressive. The engine was very smooth and easy! Driving the car was a pleasure, smooth gear shifts, a highly responsive engine that didn't crib with any high decibel sounds did sound perfect. Road handling was decent. I for one, did not find suspensions to be any better than Santro - though the dealer did tell that there it is supposed to be superior. Space inside was just about okay. Overall verdict - Santro + great engine, great gear shift. However, I thought it was an over priced car and at some stage Hyundai will need to cut prices to compete with Swift and friends.
I did take a round of new Santro - had driven new Santro before, so knew exactly how it would be. The 1.1L engine provides sufficient power, the suspension system felt almost the same. There was not much to know further about Santro, so I kept the observations down to minimum basic - and it therefore takes a smaller proportion of this post! There is one comment that I need to make - 7-8 years in India and I am still not sure if Hyundai has ironed out the air-conditioning system. Getz and Santro didn't feel at any stage sufficiently in tune with cooling requirements in India, more so in Chennai. Its probably a trade off with fuel efficiency, but driving comfort is a lot dependent on the effectiveness of the air con and being a Hyundai fan, I would like to see that corrected at some point in time.
Now over to the next car - the car that I had in some ways decided to go ahead with. It's Maruti Sukuzi Swift. Everything about the car looked perfect till then. The sports shape of the car is obviously a big big plus. In addition to that, it looks overall neat, with certain special design elements that had made Swift the car of the year internationally - launched in India almost in parallel with it's global launch, Swift based on all reviews was the car here to stay for sometime. I have been impressed with other factors that have gone in branding of the car - the fully devoted marutiswift website was a great place to get a perfect overview to the car and the relative comparison of different models. With VX model priced at 4.8L, Maruti, I think has positioned the car perfectly well in India.
With this background, I started the test drive of the car. The interiors of the car looked just right with more than sufficient leg room and head room - did feel a bigger car than Santro and Getz - I might be wrong here, as this perception is based on the design whereas actual dimensions sometimes work out to be different. Into gear 1 and the car did have some pick-up! That was impressive, really was! I am inherently a low rpm driver, but didn't mind pressing the throttle on this car. I was test driving the top end model of the car with automatic climate control - the air conditioning did look very effective and the ride comfort was good. I will look at the stats at some stage, but I think Swift is a bit heavier than Getz. I would feel that as it did glide through the potholes and the suspension response was reasonably good. However, I was not entirely convinced on two factors: 1) The engine smoothness - didn't feel that smooth as the Getz that I test drove 2) In-cabin sound level. Again, this finally comes down to refinement and build quality. This is what my top of the mind judgement was, however reality could be a bit different - it all depends on how old the demo cars where - the dealer told me that it was 6 months old, with every day some auto freak like me trying to push the car to it's limits! Overall I was more of less satisfied with the car. At same price point, would have chosen Swift over Getz for superior design, though engine ride was a fraction better with Getz. However, with the corresponding model of Getz being a good 40K more than Swift, there was hardly any decision to be made here.
This was day 1 of test drives - infact day half to be exact as I spent the first half of the day in travel to Chennai. By evening, I was much convinced that it is Swift. The plan for day-2 was to reach some level of comfort with the car, may be test drive once more and then look to hunt for the dealer that could give maximum discount.
Day-2, I take my Santro out with a list of all Maruti dealers in town - to get the best possible deal. On the way, I happened to visit Tata motors showroom. I wanted to have some understanding of Indica and a bit of Indigo. Actually, I haven't kept pace with changes in Indica since it's early days. Those were times when I used to follow Indica very closely - as it was one car developed from scratch in India and I felt proud that it was just about there in terms of product features and quality with the international competition. Way back in 2001 or 2002, I had gone to Delhi for Auto Expo from Bits with a couple of car crazy friends. We did see Indica v2 and another variant then and it did sound impressive. Now, Indica had changed - the new version XETA was like 'wow'. At 3.6L for the fully loaded version, it was attractive. I took a test drive and the 1.4L engine felt a bit better than Santro. After the test drive, I could suddenly see the price difference between Indica and Swift and the impressive XETA was almost there at the top in my books. However, 2 factors again went against this. 1) Indica till now has a lower resale value - probably due to build quality of earlier models 2) It is somehow associated with taxis, as Indicab has been a huge success.
Confused as I was, thought it was best to visit a Swift dealer again. I test drove Swift again, the 87bhp power, the sports car design and the stamp of international car of the year were reasons enough to pay the premium over Indica. So, it was SWIFT again - now it was down to getting the colours, etc right. Swift comes in with some real cool colours! - I actually like the black Swift as much as the other variants like silver, blue, dark grey, etc. One special feature in Swift that enhances the sports car image is the black A and B columns (or is it B and columns?) - well these are actually the metal panels that front doors close to - this black did go so well with silver that it made the decision a lot easier for us.
Rest of the time in Chennai, I spent on the process part - negotiating with the dealer, booking the car, dealing with finance companies to get the best EMI per lakh, etc, etc. Next morning (day-3), I went to the accessory showroom to get a few extra fittings. I am actually not a big fan of accessories - i so much like the original look of the car and like to preserve it for as long as possible - to the extent that I am a bit against the concept of sun films in cars - I like the original marginally tinted glasses that cars come in with. However, I wanted to fit the SWIFT with a music system that would be in line with the engine power!
SWIFT, as per estimates, should be delivered tomorrow. I am in Singapore now, so will probably have to wait a while before I can get behind the wheels of the new car. A long drive is surely on cards next time I get an opportunity!
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Giving it a start...
First time blogging aimlessly, however, thought its worth a start...
Over the last few days, I have had all the time in the world for myself - to the extent that I have often gone to the nearby beach and have done a bit of google search to find out if is it just time or even tide has come to a standstill?!
This is when the mechanical engineer in me woke up. I have been out of touch for sometime now. There was once a time, when I used to read 'Auto India' the day it came to stalls, I knew the stats of most Indian cars right from technical specifications to monthly units sold - now haven't seen the mag for nearly a century (a bit of hyperbole, make it a couple of years). However, to say the least, it was interesting to get back to my roots.
The first part was a bit of search on passenger aircraft fundaes - at BITS, I didn't take any course in aerodynamics, nor in basics of aircraft. Probably the only funda I knew was pressure difference (Mr. Bernoulli had a theorem for this!) and the resulting lift on aircraft wings. Having done a bit of travel off-late and with a bit of luck, I have managed to get window seat on or behind the wings, got my curiosity going ab't how does an aircraft actually work. Everytime when the engine goes full blast while take-off on the runway, I feel a bit proud of being a mechanical engineer - in an age when innovation has shifted to other fields (Comp Sci, Elec) and the core mechanical has now shifted more towards nano fundaes and materials in general. So, eventually did ghot up some fundaes on aircrafts, wikipedia was a big help. However, with a few questions answered and other avenues exposed, my knowledge gap has further widened - hopefully one fine day will get a chance to speak to a pilot and download all information!
The second stage of getting back to roots happened kinda yesterday. Santro back home is having some pending maintenance and probably its time to change the car. So, I started off with a bit of search on current models in market, tech specs, features, looks and ofcourse the 'cash-outflow'! The final decision not withstanding, I am enjoying this process of learning the stuff all over again. Engine BHP, multi-point fuel injection, inline 4-cylinder, compression ratio and gear ratios is driving me nuts. And when I saw the gear ratios of Swift was slightly taken aback - it was 0.9 for 4th and close to 0.7 for 5th - thats a lot of overdrive - slightly more than Santro and I was thinking how would it have an influence on the performance. Then I saw, the engine is actually a power house - 87BHP of raw power and probably that has helped in higher overdrive of higher gears. I would wanna test drive Swift, coz another interesting part is that there is a huge difference in ratio of 1st gear and 2nd. Probably it implies that is a high speed engine with good lower end torque. In normal english, it implies that for city drive, 2nd gear can have a wide speed range. I need to test drive swift now...!!
I saw ABS somewhere and said, I know I know it all. Its has something to do with braking at turns and it is a bit of controlled electronic braking. Just when I felt confident of "I still understand the basics", my friend Maharaj came on chat - this dude, having done elec and instru in Bits is now doing masters in automobiles - so, its always fun. I thought of 'vibing' about my 'sudden return to form', but was thunderstruck when maharaj mentioned something called 'ESP' - I was completely taken aback! There was a sudden depreciation in my self-worth as a potential automobile engineer! Went back again to my friend wikipedia to ghot up 'ESP'. But...
So, was an interesting day, when once I thought 'I know it all' in Auto and then there was a sudden transformation towards the end of the day when I realised that 'the auto world has moved ahead'. With a dent to my auto ego, I decided to switch off music and crash!!
Over the last few days, I have had all the time in the world for myself - to the extent that I have often gone to the nearby beach and have done a bit of google search to find out if is it just time or even tide has come to a standstill?!
This is when the mechanical engineer in me woke up. I have been out of touch for sometime now. There was once a time, when I used to read 'Auto India' the day it came to stalls, I knew the stats of most Indian cars right from technical specifications to monthly units sold - now haven't seen the mag for nearly a century (a bit of hyperbole, make it a couple of years). However, to say the least, it was interesting to get back to my roots.
The first part was a bit of search on passenger aircraft fundaes - at BITS, I didn't take any course in aerodynamics, nor in basics of aircraft. Probably the only funda I knew was pressure difference (Mr. Bernoulli had a theorem for this!) and the resulting lift on aircraft wings. Having done a bit of travel off-late and with a bit of luck, I have managed to get window seat on or behind the wings, got my curiosity going ab't how does an aircraft actually work. Everytime when the engine goes full blast while take-off on the runway, I feel a bit proud of being a mechanical engineer - in an age when innovation has shifted to other fields (Comp Sci, Elec) and the core mechanical has now shifted more towards nano fundaes and materials in general. So, eventually did ghot up some fundaes on aircrafts, wikipedia was a big help. However, with a few questions answered and other avenues exposed, my knowledge gap has further widened - hopefully one fine day will get a chance to speak to a pilot and download all information!
The second stage of getting back to roots happened kinda yesterday. Santro back home is having some pending maintenance and probably its time to change the car. So, I started off with a bit of search on current models in market, tech specs, features, looks and ofcourse the 'cash-outflow'! The final decision not withstanding, I am enjoying this process of learning the stuff all over again. Engine BHP, multi-point fuel injection, inline 4-cylinder, compression ratio and gear ratios is driving me nuts. And when I saw the gear ratios of Swift was slightly taken aback - it was 0.9 for 4th and close to 0.7 for 5th - thats a lot of overdrive - slightly more than Santro and I was thinking how would it have an influence on the performance. Then I saw, the engine is actually a power house - 87BHP of raw power and probably that has helped in higher overdrive of higher gears. I would wanna test drive Swift, coz another interesting part is that there is a huge difference in ratio of 1st gear and 2nd. Probably it implies that is a high speed engine with good lower end torque. In normal english, it implies that for city drive, 2nd gear can have a wide speed range. I need to test drive swift now...!!
I saw ABS somewhere and said, I know I know it all. Its has something to do with braking at turns and it is a bit of controlled electronic braking. Just when I felt confident of "I still understand the basics", my friend Maharaj came on chat - this dude, having done elec and instru in Bits is now doing masters in automobiles - so, its always fun. I thought of 'vibing' about my 'sudden return to form', but was thunderstruck when maharaj mentioned something called 'ESP' - I was completely taken aback! There was a sudden depreciation in my self-worth as a potential automobile engineer! Went back again to my friend wikipedia to ghot up 'ESP'. But...
So, was an interesting day, when once I thought 'I know it all' in Auto and then there was a sudden transformation towards the end of the day when I realised that 'the auto world has moved ahead'. With a dent to my auto ego, I decided to switch off music and crash!!
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